Routledge Contemporary Japan Series
About the Book Series
The aim of this series is to publish original, high-quality work by both new and established scholars on all aspects of contemporary Japan.
Manga and the Representation of Japanese History
1st Edition
Edited
By Roman Rosenbaum
February 27, 2015
This edited collection explores how graphic art and in particular Japanese manga represent Japanese history. The articles explore the representation of history in manga from disciplines that include such diverse fields as literary studies, politics, history, cultural studies, linguistics, ...
Nationalism, Political Realism and Democracy in Japan: The thought of Masao Maruyama
1st Edition
By Fumiko Sasaki
February 27, 2015
Masao Maruyama was the most influential and respected political thinker in post-WWII Japan. He believed that the collective mentality, inherent in the traditional Japanese way of thinking, was a key reason for the defeat in WWII and was convinced that such thought needed to be modernized. In this ...
Japan in the Age of Globalization
1st Edition
Edited
By Carin Holroyd, Ken Coates
March 13, 2014
The multiple and diverse forces of globalization have, indeed, affected Japan significantly over the past decades. But so, it must be said, has Japan influenced a variety of critical global developments - globalization is not a one-way street, particularly for a nation as economically influential ...
Social Networks and Japanese Democracy: The Beneficial Impact of Interpersonal Communication in East Asia
1st Edition
By Ken'ichi Ikeda, Sean Richey
January 03, 2014
Many who critique democracy as practiced in East Asia suggest that the Confucian political culture of these nations prevents democracy from being the robust participatory type, and limits it to a spectacle designed to create obedience from the public. Certainly some East Asian nations have had ...
The Ethics of Japan's Global Environmental Policy: The conflict between principles and practice
1st Edition
By Midori Kagawa-Fox
January 03, 2014
This book examines the Japanese government policies that impact on the environment in order to determine whether they incorporate a sufficient ethical substance. Through the three case studies on whaling, nuclear energy, and forestry, the author explores how Western philosophers combined their ...
The Quest for Japan's New Constitution: An Analysis of Visions and Constitutional Reform Proposals 1980-2009
1st Edition
By Christian G. Winkler
September 20, 2013
This book examines the many attempts over the last three decades to revise Japan’s constitution. As the book shows, these attempts at revision have been relatively conservative, aiming to embed in the constitution visions of a different future for Japan. Specific reforms advocated include: enabling...
Japan-Bashing: Anti-Japanism since the 1980s
1st Edition
By Narrelle Morris
September 03, 2013
The aim of this book is to examine and analyse the phenomenon of ‘Japan-bashing’, from its invention and popularisation in the United States in the late 1970s to the emergence of other national variants, including in Australia and Japan, to its gradual decline in the late 1990s. It is the first ...
Language Life in Japan: Transformations and Prospects
1st Edition
Edited
By Patrick Heinrich, Christian Galan
June 07, 2013
Despite its monolingual self-image, Japan is multilingual and growing more so due to indigenous minority language revitalization and as an effect of migration. Besides Japan's autochthonous languages such as the Ainu and Ryukyuan languages, there are more than 75,000 immigrant children in the ...
Dealing with Disaster in Japan: Responses to the Flight JL123 Crash
1st Edition
By Christopher Hood
May 03, 2013
Just as the sinking of the Titanic is embedded in the public consciousness in the English-speaking world, so the crash of JAL flight JL123 is part of the Japanese collective memory. The 1985 crash involved the largest loss of life for any single air crash in the world. 520 people, many of whom had ...
Institutional and Technological Change in Japan's Economy: Past and Present
1st Edition
Edited
By Janet Hunter, Cornelia Storz
November 14, 2012
Institutional and technological change is a highly topical subject. At the theoretical level, there is much debate in the field of institutional economics about the role of technological change in endogenous growth theory. At a practical policy level, arguments rage about how Japan and the Japanese...
Small Firms and Innovation Policy in Japan
1st Edition
Edited
By Cornelia Storz
November 14, 2012
This new book discusses the extent to which the Japanese economy encourages entrepreneurship and innovation. Although Japan has a strong reputation as an innovator, some people argue that this reputation is misplaced. Contrary to earlier expectations, the USA rather than Japan emerged as the ...
A New Japan for the Twenty-First Century: An Inside Overview of Current Fundamental Changes and Problems
1st Edition
Edited
By Rien T. Segers
September 18, 2012
Many people in the West portray Japan as being fixed in its ways, and unable to change, and consequently risking national decline and international loss of prestige. However, in fact, Japan is at present in a significant transition period, comparable to the Meiji Restoration of 1868 or the period ...