Japan In World Politics

This detailed and lucid volume is an essential resource for students of Asian Studies and International Politics.

How have shifts in both the international environment and domestic politics affected the trajectory of Japanese foreign policy? Does it still make sense to depict Japan as passive and reactive, or have the country's leaders become strategic and proactive? This book presents a nuanced picture of Japanese foreign policy, emphasizing the ways in which slow, adaptive changes, informed by pragmatic liberalism, have served the national interest.

The new edition of this comprehensive and user-friendly textbook provides a single volume resource for all those studying Japan's international relations.

How have shifts in both the international environment and domestic politics affected the trajectory of Japanese foreign policy? Does it still make sense to depict Japan as passive and reactive, or have the country's leaders become strategic and proactive? This book presents a nuanced picture of Japanese foreign policy, emphasizing the ways in which slow, adaptive changes, informed by pragmatic liberalism, have served the national interest.

The best scholarship on the development of contemporary Japan This collection presents well over 100 scholarly articles on modern Japanese society, written by leading scholars in the field. These selections have been drawn from the most distinguished scholarly journals as well as from journals that are less well known among specialists; and the articles represent the best and most important scholarship on their particular topic. An understanding of the present through the lens of the past The field of modern Japan studies has grown steadily as Westerners have recognized the importance of Japan as a lading world economic force and an emerging regional power. The post-1945 economic success of the Japanese has, however, been achieved in the context of that nation's history, social structure, educational enterprise and political environment. It is impossible to understand the postwar economic miracle without an appreciation of these elements. Japan's economic emergence has brought about and in some cases, exacerbated already existing tensions, and these tensions have, in turn, had a significant impact on Japanese economic life. The series is designed to give readers a basic understanding of modern Japan-its institutions and its people-as we stand on the threshold of a new century, often referred to as the Pacific Century.

This widely used text is an even-handed, forthright attempt to explain the political life of Japan as well as the forces that shape it. It demystifies this complex society by explaining the historical background for modern Japan; the political process, its formal structure, the party system, and citizen participation; the social order and the domestic economy; and Japan's role in international politics with emphasis on U.S.-Japanese relations and the international economy. The revised and updated Third Edition covers the new ground of 1995-1999, a period during which Japan experienced extraordinary political and economic change.