Who Rules Japan

Fifty years ago, a new alliance of Japanese elites sparked the miraculous transformation of their country from a land decimated by war to an economic superpower that would become the envy of the world. These elites represented the best and brightest of Japan and they were willing to make great sacrifices for the prosperity of their people. Now, this same elitist system may be the nation's downfall. The new elites who replaced the pre-World War II zaibatsu elite have formed their own brand of upper class rule based on corporate control and domination of the state. Intent on solidifying their power through arranged marriages and interlocking families, many Japanese believe the new elite has become corrupt and self-serving. The resulting inequality has spurred growing anger among the non-elite classes. At a time when stability defines the new world order, Japan faces its greatest threat—the threat from within. Bound to be controversial, Who Rules Japan? is a study that expertly connects the country's economic, cultural, historical, and political facets. Kerbo and McKinstry explain how this new type of upper class has gradually spurned the traditional ideals of democracy in favor of an elitist approach that exploits the masses and causes ominous unrest. As a result, Japan is now confronted with a critical turning point in its history. The elites must choose between consolidating their personal power by continuing to resist change or beginning to make necessary sacrifices for their nation at the expense of their own privilege and prestige. The course they take will determine Japan's fate and the shape of the world order into the next century. Unique in its approach, this book will be of interest to scholars, researchers, students, and the general reader—all those interested in understanding Japan's inner struggle.

The dramatic growth of the Japanese economy in the postwar period, and its meltdown in the 1990s, has attracted sustained interest in the power dynamics underlying the management of Japanês administrative state. Scholars and commentators have long deba

Henry Laurence traces financial market reform in Britain and Japan over the last two decades, charting the movement of the Anglo-Saxon and Japanese styles of capitalism toward a new, hybrid form of economic organization. He explains what these two stories reveal about changes in the nature of business-government relations in an age of convergence.The package of reforms known in Britain as the "Big Bang" and in Japan as "Biggu Bangu" decontrolled prices, liberalized the number and nature of financial instruments that could be traded, opened both countries' markets to foreigners, and introduced a much greater degree of competition than would have been believed possible twenty years earlier. At the same time, Britain and Japan have undertaken stringent measures to improve the transparency and fairness of their markets.Why did two countries with traditionally very different regulatory styles adopt such strikingly similar reforms, and why did these reforms result in a mixture of deregulation in some areas and tighter control in others? In explaining these apparent contradictions, Laurence invokes the powerful domestic political impact of international capital mobility.Money Rules challenges the view that bureaucracy is the most powerful actor in the policymaking process. Using extensive interviews with more than one hundred policymakers and financial professionals in both countries, the author rebuts conventional wisdom. He argues that the events in Britain and Japan demonstrate striking crossnational convergence of political and economic institutions.

This volume explores major developments in Japanese law over the latter half of the twentieth century and looks ahead to the future. Modeled on the classic work Law in Japan: The Legal Order in a Changing Society (1963), edited by Arthur Taylor von Mehren, it features the work of thirty-five leading legal experts on most of the major fields of Japanese law, with special attention to the increasingly important areas of environmental law, health law, intellectual property, and insolvency. The contributors adopt a variety of theoretical approaches, including legal, economic, historical, and socio-legal. As Law and Japan: A Turning Point is the only volume to take inventory of the key areas of Japanese law and their development since the 1960s, it will be an important reference tool and starting point for research on the Japanese legal system. Topics addressed include the legal system (with chapters on legal history, the legal profession, the judiciary, the legislative and political process, and legal education); the individual and the state (with chapters on constitutional law, administrative law, criminal justice, environmental law, and health law); and the economy (with chapters on corporate law, contracts, labor and employment law, antimonopoly law, intellectual property, taxation, and insolvency). Japanese law is in the midst of a watershed period. This book captures the major trends by presenting views on important changes in the field and identifying catalysts for change in the twenty-first century.

The tragic true story of Japan's Crown Princess-with a new afterword by the author. It's the fantasy of many young women: marry a handsome prince, move into a luxurious palace, and live happily ever after. But that's not how it turned out for Masako Owada. Ben Hills's fascinating portrait of Princess Masako and the Chrysanthemum Throne draws on research in Tokyo and rural Japan, at Oxford and Harvard, and from more than sixty interviews with Japanese, American, British, and Australian sources-many of whom have never spoken publicly before-shedding light on the royal family's darkest secrets, secrets that can never be openly discussed in Japan because of the reverence in which the emperor and his family are held. But most of all, this is a story about a love affair that went tragically wrong. The paperback edition will contain a new afterword by the author, discussing the impact this book had in Japan, where it was banned.

The book offers a fascinating picture of the four emperors of modern Japan, their institution, their personalities and their impact on the history of their country. Leading scholars from Japan and other countries have contributed essays which treat this subject from various angles.