Author: Dennis B. Smith
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312127602
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
Japan's rise to political and economic prominence has been one of the most dramatic developments in the postwar world. Japan has the world's second largest economy and is undoubtedly an economic superpower. It is situated in the most dynamic economic region in the world, and Japan's economic power is bestowing increasing political significance on the country. This book provides a vital key to understanding this momentous transformation by giving a clear historical account of the process of Japanese economic, political and social change since the Second World War. It sets postwar Japan in its historical context, highlighting the essential continuities with the prewar world as well as detailing the changes which have occurred in Japan since 1945. The author explores such issues as Japan's prewar legacy, the importance of the American occupation to Japan's subsequent development, the creation of the postwar political structure, the sources of Japan's economic growth and the changing nature of Japanese politics and the economy in the 1970s and 1980s. The impact which this economic and political transformation has had on the Japanese people is also explored. The book ends with an account of Japan's serious economic recession in the early 1990s and the end of the Liberal Democrat Party's monopoly of government in 1993-4.
Japan Since 1945
Author: Dennis B. Smith
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312127602
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
Japan's rise to political and economic prominence has been one of the most dramatic developments in the postwar world. Japan has the world's second largest economy and is undoubtedly an economic superpower. It is situated in the most dynamic economic region in the world, and Japan's economic power is bestowing increasing political significance on the country. This book provides a vital key to understanding this momentous transformation by giving a clear historical account of the process of Japanese economic, political and social change since the Second World War. It sets postwar Japan in its historical context, highlighting the essential continuities with the prewar world as well as detailing the changes which have occurred in Japan since 1945. The author explores such issues as Japan's prewar legacy, the importance of the American occupation to Japan's subsequent development, the creation of the postwar political structure, the sources of Japan's economic growth and the changing nature of Japanese politics and the economy in the 1970s and 1980s. The impact which this economic and political transformation has had on the Japanese people is also explored. The book ends with an account of Japan's serious economic recession in the early 1990s and the end of the Liberal Democrat Party's monopoly of government in 1993-4.
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312127602
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
Japan's rise to political and economic prominence has been one of the most dramatic developments in the postwar world. Japan has the world's second largest economy and is undoubtedly an economic superpower. It is situated in the most dynamic economic region in the world, and Japan's economic power is bestowing increasing political significance on the country. This book provides a vital key to understanding this momentous transformation by giving a clear historical account of the process of Japanese economic, political and social change since the Second World War. It sets postwar Japan in its historical context, highlighting the essential continuities with the prewar world as well as detailing the changes which have occurred in Japan since 1945. The author explores such issues as Japan's prewar legacy, the importance of the American occupation to Japan's subsequent development, the creation of the postwar political structure, the sources of Japan's economic growth and the changing nature of Japanese politics and the economy in the 1970s and 1980s. The impact which this economic and political transformation has had on the Japanese people is also explored. The book ends with an account of Japan's serious economic recession in the early 1990s and the end of the Liberal Democrat Party's monopoly of government in 1993-4.
Lever of Empire
Author: Mark Metzler
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520931793
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 395
Book Description
This book, the first full account of Japan’s financial history and the Japanese gold standard in the pivotal years before World War II, provides a new perspective on the global political dynamics of the era by placing Japan, rather than Europe, at the center of the story. Focusing on the fall of liberalism in Japan in late 1931 and the global politics of money that were at the center of the crisis, Mark Metzler asks why successive Japanese governments from 1920 to 1931 carried out policies that deliberately induced deflation and depression. His search for answers stretches from Edo to London to the ragged borderlands of the Japanese empire and from the eighteenth century to the 1950s, integrating political and monetary analysis to shed light on the complex dynamics of money, empire, and global hegemony. His detailed and broad ranging account illuminates a range of issues including Japan’s involvement in the economic dynamics that shook interwar Europe, the character of U.S. isolationism, and the rise of fascism as an international phenomenon.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520931793
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 395
Book Description
This book, the first full account of Japan’s financial history and the Japanese gold standard in the pivotal years before World War II, provides a new perspective on the global political dynamics of the era by placing Japan, rather than Europe, at the center of the story. Focusing on the fall of liberalism in Japan in late 1931 and the global politics of money that were at the center of the crisis, Mark Metzler asks why successive Japanese governments from 1920 to 1931 carried out policies that deliberately induced deflation and depression. His search for answers stretches from Edo to London to the ragged borderlands of the Japanese empire and from the eighteenth century to the 1950s, integrating political and monetary analysis to shed light on the complex dynamics of money, empire, and global hegemony. His detailed and broad ranging account illuminates a range of issues including Japan’s involvement in the economic dynamics that shook interwar Europe, the character of U.S. isolationism, and the rise of fascism as an international phenomenon.
Japan's Re-emergence as a 'Normal' Military Power
Author: Christopher Hughes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136056602
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 157
Book Description
Is Japan re-emerging as a normal, or even a great, military power in regional and global security affairs? This Adelphi Paper assesses the overall trajectory of Japan’s security policy over the last decade, and the impact of a changing Japanese military posture on the stability of East Asia. The paper examines Japan’s evolving security debate, set against the background of a shifting international environment and domestic policymaking system; the status of Japan’s national military capabilities and constitutional prohibitions; post-Cold War developments in the US Japan alliance; and Japan’s role in multilateral regional security dialogue, UN PKO, and US-led coalitions of the willing. It concludes that Japan is undoubtedly moving along the trajectory of becoming a more assertive military power, and that this trend has been accelerated post-9/11. Japan is unlikely, though, to channel its military power through greatly different frameworks than at present. Japan will opt for the enhanced, and probably inextricable, integration of its military capabilities into the US Japan alliance, rather than pursuing options for greater autonomy or multilateralism. Japan’s strengthened role as the defensive shield for the offensive sword of US power projection will only serve to bolster US military hegemony in East Asia and globally.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136056602
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 157
Book Description
Is Japan re-emerging as a normal, or even a great, military power in regional and global security affairs? This Adelphi Paper assesses the overall trajectory of Japan’s security policy over the last decade, and the impact of a changing Japanese military posture on the stability of East Asia. The paper examines Japan’s evolving security debate, set against the background of a shifting international environment and domestic policymaking system; the status of Japan’s national military capabilities and constitutional prohibitions; post-Cold War developments in the US Japan alliance; and Japan’s role in multilateral regional security dialogue, UN PKO, and US-led coalitions of the willing. It concludes that Japan is undoubtedly moving along the trajectory of becoming a more assertive military power, and that this trend has been accelerated post-9/11. Japan is unlikely, though, to channel its military power through greatly different frameworks than at present. Japan will opt for the enhanced, and probably inextricable, integration of its military capabilities into the US Japan alliance, rather than pursuing options for greater autonomy or multilateralism. Japan’s strengthened role as the defensive shield for the offensive sword of US power projection will only serve to bolster US military hegemony in East Asia and globally.
Japan's Emergence as a Global Power
Author: James I. Matray
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313096325
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
Out of the ashes of its defeat in World War II, Japan arose to become the foremost economic power in the East Asia and a major player on the world economic stage. How did it do this? This work provides a concise summary and analysis of Japan's emergence as a global economic power. This guide discusses the growth of Japan as an unconventional global power based on the strength of its economy and the softening of its economy in the 1990s. Six topical essays are supported by a timeline of events in postwar Japan, biographical profiles of key players, the text of important primary documents, a glossary of terms, and an annotated bibliography. Topical essays cover the reprise of the Rising Sun, Japan as a Cold War client, the evolution of Japan as an economic giant, contending with the Communists, pursuing partners in Asia, and Japan as a reactive global power. Biographical sketches of 15 key Japanese political and business leaders, the text of 15 primary documents, a timeline of events, a glossary of terms, and an annotated bibliography suitable for student research provide valuable reference material. Students will benefit from this cogent and readable examination of one of the key developments in the postwar world.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313096325
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
Out of the ashes of its defeat in World War II, Japan arose to become the foremost economic power in the East Asia and a major player on the world economic stage. How did it do this? This work provides a concise summary and analysis of Japan's emergence as a global economic power. This guide discusses the growth of Japan as an unconventional global power based on the strength of its economy and the softening of its economy in the 1990s. Six topical essays are supported by a timeline of events in postwar Japan, biographical profiles of key players, the text of important primary documents, a glossary of terms, and an annotated bibliography. Topical essays cover the reprise of the Rising Sun, Japan as a Cold War client, the evolution of Japan as an economic giant, contending with the Communists, pursuing partners in Asia, and Japan as a reactive global power. Biographical sketches of 15 key Japanese political and business leaders, the text of 15 primary documents, a timeline of events, a glossary of terms, and an annotated bibliography suitable for student research provide valuable reference material. Students will benefit from this cogent and readable examination of one of the key developments in the postwar world.
Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan
Author: Andrew Gordon
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520913302
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 381
Book Description
Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan examines the political role played by working men and women in prewar Tokyo and offers a reinterpretation of the broader dynamics of Japan's prewar political history. Gordon argues that such phenomena as riots, labor disputes, and union organizing can best be understood as part of an early twentieth-century movement for "imperial democracy" shaped by the nineteenth-century drive to promote capitalism and build a modern nation and empire. When the propertied, educated leaders of this movement gained a share of power in the 1920s, they disagreed on how far to go toward incorporating working men and women into an expanded body politic. For their part, workers became ambivalent toward working within the imperial democratic system. In this context, the intense polarization of laborers and owners during the Depression helped ultimately to destroy the legitimacy of imperial democracy. Gordon suggests that the thought and behavior of Japanese workers both reflected and furthered the intense concern with popular participation and national power that has marked Japan's modern history. He points to a post-World War II legacy for imperial democracy in both the organization of the working class movement and the popular willingness to see GNP growth as an index of national glory. Importantly, Gordon shows how historians might reconsider the roles of tenant farmers, students, and female activists, for example, in the rise and transformation of imperial democracy.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520913302
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 381
Book Description
Labor and Imperial Democracy in Prewar Japan examines the political role played by working men and women in prewar Tokyo and offers a reinterpretation of the broader dynamics of Japan's prewar political history. Gordon argues that such phenomena as riots, labor disputes, and union organizing can best be understood as part of an early twentieth-century movement for "imperial democracy" shaped by the nineteenth-century drive to promote capitalism and build a modern nation and empire. When the propertied, educated leaders of this movement gained a share of power in the 1920s, they disagreed on how far to go toward incorporating working men and women into an expanded body politic. For their part, workers became ambivalent toward working within the imperial democratic system. In this context, the intense polarization of laborers and owners during the Depression helped ultimately to destroy the legitimacy of imperial democracy. Gordon suggests that the thought and behavior of Japanese workers both reflected and furthered the intense concern with popular participation and national power that has marked Japan's modern history. He points to a post-World War II legacy for imperial democracy in both the organization of the working class movement and the popular willingness to see GNP growth as an index of national glory. Importantly, Gordon shows how historians might reconsider the roles of tenant farmers, students, and female activists, for example, in the rise and transformation of imperial democracy.
Japan Rising
Author: Kenneth Pyle
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0786732024
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
Japan is on the verge of a sea change. After more than fifty years of national pacifism and isolation including the "lost decade" of the 1990s, Japan is quietly, stealthily awakening. As Japan prepares to become a major player in the strategic struggles of the 21st century, critical questions arise about its motivations. What are the driving forces that influence how Japan will act in the international system? Are there recurrent patterns that will help explain how Japan will respond to the emerging environment of world politics? American understanding of Japanese character and purpose has been tenuous at best. We have repeatedly underestimated Japan in the realm of foreign policy. Now as Japan shows signs of vitality and international engagement, it is more important than ever that we understand the forces that drive Japan. In Japan Rising, renowned expert Kenneth Pyle identities the common threads that bind the divergent strategies of modern Japan, providing essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how Japan arrived at this moment -- and what to expect in the future.
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0786732024
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240
Book Description
Japan is on the verge of a sea change. After more than fifty years of national pacifism and isolation including the "lost decade" of the 1990s, Japan is quietly, stealthily awakening. As Japan prepares to become a major player in the strategic struggles of the 21st century, critical questions arise about its motivations. What are the driving forces that influence how Japan will act in the international system? Are there recurrent patterns that will help explain how Japan will respond to the emerging environment of world politics? American understanding of Japanese character and purpose has been tenuous at best. We have repeatedly underestimated Japan in the realm of foreign policy. Now as Japan shows signs of vitality and international engagement, it is more important than ever that we understand the forces that drive Japan. In Japan Rising, renowned expert Kenneth Pyle identities the common threads that bind the divergent strategies of modern Japan, providing essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how Japan arrived at this moment -- and what to expect in the future.
Japan's Total Empire
Author: Louise Young
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520923154
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 509
Book Description
In this first social and cultural history of Japan's construction of Manchuria, Louise Young offers an incisive examination of the nature of Japanese imperialism. Focusing on the domestic impact of Japan's activities in Northeast China between 1931 and 1945, Young considers "metropolitan effects" of empire building: how people at home imagined and experienced the empire they called Manchukuo. Contrary to the conventional assumption that a few army officers and bureaucrats were responsible for Japan's overseas expansion, Young finds that a variety of organizations helped to mobilize popular support for Manchukuo—the mass media, the academy, chambers of commerce, women's organizations, youth groups, and agricultural cooperatives—leading to broad-based support among diverse groups of Japanese. As the empire was being built in China, Young shows, an imagined Manchukuo was emerging at home, constructed of visions of a defensive lifeline, a developing economy, and a settler's paradise.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520923154
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 509
Book Description
In this first social and cultural history of Japan's construction of Manchuria, Louise Young offers an incisive examination of the nature of Japanese imperialism. Focusing on the domestic impact of Japan's activities in Northeast China between 1931 and 1945, Young considers "metropolitan effects" of empire building: how people at home imagined and experienced the empire they called Manchukuo. Contrary to the conventional assumption that a few army officers and bureaucrats were responsible for Japan's overseas expansion, Young finds that a variety of organizations helped to mobilize popular support for Manchukuo—the mass media, the academy, chambers of commerce, women's organizations, youth groups, and agricultural cooperatives—leading to broad-based support among diverse groups of Japanese. As the empire was being built in China, Young shows, an imagined Manchukuo was emerging at home, constructed of visions of a defensive lifeline, a developing economy, and a settler's paradise.
The Making of a Japanese Periphery, 1750-1920
Author: Kären Wigen
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520914368
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
Contending that Japan's industrial and imperial revolutions were also geographical revolutions, Kären Wigen's interdisciplinary study analyzes the changing spatial order of the countryside in early modern Japan. Her focus, the Ina Valley, served as a gateway to the mountainous interior of central Japan. Using methods drawn from historical geography and economic development, Wigen maps the valley's changes—from a region of small settlements linked in an autonomous economic zone, to its transformation into a peripheral part of the global silk trade, dependent on the state. Yet the processes that brought these changes—industrial growth and political centralization—were crucial to Japan's rise to imperial power. Wigen's elucidation of this makes her book compelling reading for a broad audience.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520914368
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
Contending that Japan's industrial and imperial revolutions were also geographical revolutions, Kären Wigen's interdisciplinary study analyzes the changing spatial order of the countryside in early modern Japan. Her focus, the Ina Valley, served as a gateway to the mountainous interior of central Japan. Using methods drawn from historical geography and economic development, Wigen maps the valley's changes—from a region of small settlements linked in an autonomous economic zone, to its transformation into a peripheral part of the global silk trade, dependent on the state. Yet the processes that brought these changes—industrial growth and political centralization—were crucial to Japan's rise to imperial power. Wigen's elucidation of this makes her book compelling reading for a broad audience.
Japan’s Decision For War In 1941: Some Enduring Lessons
Author: Dr. Jeffrey Record
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1786252961
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 105
Book Description
Japan’s decision to attack the United States in 1941 is widely regarded as irrational to the point of suicidal. How could Japan hope to survive a war with, much less defeat, an enemy possessing an invulnerable homeland and an industrial base 10 times that of Japan? The Pacific War was one that Japan was always going to lose, so how does one explain Tokyo’s decision? Did the Japanese recognize the odds against them? Did they have a concept of victory, or at least of avoiding defeat? Or did the Japanese prefer a lost war to an unacceptable peace? Dr. Jeffrey Record takes a fresh look at Japan’s decision for war, and concludes that it was dictated by Japanese pride and the threatened economic destruction of Japan by the United States. He believes that Japanese aggression in East Asia was the root cause of the Pacific War, but argues that the road to war in 1941 was built on American as well as Japanese miscalculations and that both sides suffered from cultural ignorance and racial arrogance. Record finds that the Americans underestimated the role of fear and honor in Japanese calculations and overestimated the effectiveness of economic sanctions as a deterrent to war, whereas the Japanese underestimated the cohesion and resolve of an aroused American society and overestimated their own martial prowess as a means of defeating U.S. material superiority. He believes that the failure of deterrence was mutual, and that the descent of the United States and Japan into war contains lessons of great and continuing relevance to American foreign policy and defense decision-makers.
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1786252961
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 105
Book Description
Japan’s decision to attack the United States in 1941 is widely regarded as irrational to the point of suicidal. How could Japan hope to survive a war with, much less defeat, an enemy possessing an invulnerable homeland and an industrial base 10 times that of Japan? The Pacific War was one that Japan was always going to lose, so how does one explain Tokyo’s decision? Did the Japanese recognize the odds against them? Did they have a concept of victory, or at least of avoiding defeat? Or did the Japanese prefer a lost war to an unacceptable peace? Dr. Jeffrey Record takes a fresh look at Japan’s decision for war, and concludes that it was dictated by Japanese pride and the threatened economic destruction of Japan by the United States. He believes that Japanese aggression in East Asia was the root cause of the Pacific War, but argues that the road to war in 1941 was built on American as well as Japanese miscalculations and that both sides suffered from cultural ignorance and racial arrogance. Record finds that the Americans underestimated the role of fear and honor in Japanese calculations and overestimated the effectiveness of economic sanctions as a deterrent to war, whereas the Japanese underestimated the cohesion and resolve of an aroused American society and overestimated their own martial prowess as a means of defeating U.S. material superiority. He believes that the failure of deterrence was mutual, and that the descent of the United States and Japan into war contains lessons of great and continuing relevance to American foreign policy and defense decision-makers.
Shadow Shoguns
Author: Jacob M. Schlesinger
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804734578
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
This is a vivid account of the corrupt and improbable political machine that ran Japanese politics for twenty years, from the early 1970s to the early 1990s, the period during which Japan became the world's second-largest economy. Reviews "Washington lobbyists, Moscow mafiosi, and Beijing party bosses stand back! . . . Here is one of the longest running big-time political sleaze serials of the past quarter-century. . . . This was a book waiting to be written, and not only has Schlesinger done it, but he has also produced a fine job of political reporting." --New York Times Book Review "In a rollicking style, Schlesinger . . . demolishes the popular misconception that politicians are boring. His is a tale of monstrous personalities. . . . This is the most entertaining short history of Japanese politics this reviewer has encountered." --The Economist "A story which is told vividly in this well researched and reliable account. . . . A superb analysis of Japan's politics and economic affairs." --Washington Post Book World "Shadow Shoguns is a lively and anecdote-rich account of the eerie parallels between Tokyo's now-battered political machine and New York's Tammany Hall. . . . Schlesinger masterfully demonstrates why Prime Minister Tanaka personified the collusive ties between Japanese politicians and Big Business." --Business Week "A fascinating and penetrating tale about the Tanaka machine that dominated Japan's politics for several decades and whose demise in the early 1990s has created a political vacuum that accounts for many of Japan's current problems." --Foreign Affairs
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804734578
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372
Book Description
This is a vivid account of the corrupt and improbable political machine that ran Japanese politics for twenty years, from the early 1970s to the early 1990s, the period during which Japan became the world's second-largest economy. Reviews "Washington lobbyists, Moscow mafiosi, and Beijing party bosses stand back! . . . Here is one of the longest running big-time political sleaze serials of the past quarter-century. . . . This was a book waiting to be written, and not only has Schlesinger done it, but he has also produced a fine job of political reporting." --New York Times Book Review "In a rollicking style, Schlesinger . . . demolishes the popular misconception that politicians are boring. His is a tale of monstrous personalities. . . . This is the most entertaining short history of Japanese politics this reviewer has encountered." --The Economist "A story which is told vividly in this well researched and reliable account. . . . A superb analysis of Japan's politics and economic affairs." --Washington Post Book World "Shadow Shoguns is a lively and anecdote-rich account of the eerie parallels between Tokyo's now-battered political machine and New York's Tammany Hall. . . . Schlesinger masterfully demonstrates why Prime Minister Tanaka personified the collusive ties between Japanese politicians and Big Business." --Business Week "A fascinating and penetrating tale about the Tanaka machine that dominated Japan's politics for several decades and whose demise in the early 1990s has created a political vacuum that accounts for many of Japan's current problems." --Foreign Affairs