Modern History of Japan II

Spring 2016

Syllabus

2016/07/06

Ryoichi Imai
imai.ryoichi.303‚ ‚Α‚Ζm.kyushu-u.ac.jp

International Student Center, Kyushu University
http://japanese-economy.la.coocan.jp/JTWhome.htm

Contents

1.     Course Outline

2.     Organization, Attendance, and Other Requirements

3.     Pre-requisites

4.     Assessment Details

5.     Schedule and Readings

Course Outline

The course is designed to provide some introductory knowledge of Japanese history. This is a continuation of the history course I taught in the previous semester. The course will cover the history of Japan's political and economic system since World War II to the present..

Organization, Attendance, and Other Requirements

Students are expected to buy the text book.

Gordon, Andrew (2008), A Modern History of Japan. Oxford University Press.

Some lecture notes will be uploaded on this website. The course consists mainly of a series of lecture given by the instructor. Later the students present some selected reading materials. Each course attendant is required to make ONE oral presentation in the second half of the course. The presenter must make a set of PowerPoint slides. If too many students take this course, individual presentations will be replaced by group ones. There is ONE final take-home examination.

Those students who need to acquire three credits in accordance with the credit transfer policy of your home university must present twice.

Pre-requisite

None.

Assessment Details

Class Attendance and Discussion 20%

Presentation 40%

Final (Take Home) Examination 40%

You will get 2 credits by satisfying the course requirements specified above.

For the students who need 3 credits in order to transfer credits to your home universities, some adequate arrangements will be announced.

Schedule and Readings (subject to Change)

Lecture

1. Introduction (Review of the Previous Materials)

Part 3. Imperial Japan from Ascendance to Ashes (continuing)

2. Democracy and Empire between the World Wars

3. The Depression Crisis and Responses

4. Japan in Wartime

5. Occupied Japan: New Departures and Durable Structures

Part 4. Postwar and Contemporary Japan, 1952-2000

6 (5/17). Economic and Social Transformations

7 (5/24) Political Struggles and the High-Growth Era

8 (5/31). Global Power in a Polarized World: Japan in the 1980s

      A Lecture on Kabuki@@Kabuki Homepage   Hakata-za

9 (6/7). continuing

10. (6/14). Beyond the Postwar Era

11. (6/21) continuing

12. (6/28) continuing

Students' Presentations

Journal Resources:

Asian Survey
Journal of Japanese Studies
Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
Social Science Japan Journal
Social Science Japan Newsletter

13. (7/05). (Students' Presentation 1)

    A: The Emperor in the Postwar Japan (Selina)

The Status of the Emperor
Letter from Douglas MacArthur to Prime Minister dated 25 February 1947
Tabloids turn against the Crown Princess Masako
Imperial House of Japan
Japanese Succession Controversy
Japanese Monarchy: Past and Present (Read the first half only)
Emperor Akihito (Japan Times)

Ben Hills (2006) Princess Masako - Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne

Watch the Showa Emperor in the Movies!
Emperor (2013)
The Sun (2005) Showa Emperor speaks English!
Japanfs Longest Day (1967)

B: Domestic Politics (Bea)

Govella, K., and S. Vogel (2008), Japan in 2007: A Divided Government, Asian Survey 48(1), 97-106.
Inoguchi (2013) Japan in 2012: Voters Swing, and Swing Away Soon
Inoguchi (2014) Japan in 2013: Abenomics and Abegeopolitics
Pekkanen and Pekkanen (2015): Japan in 2014: All about Abe (no longer downloadable in the campus)
Pekkanen and Pekkanen (2016): Japan in 2015: More about Abe (no longer downloadable in the campus)

Noble, Gregory (2006) Koizumi and Neo-liberal Economic Reform, Social Science Japan Newsletter March 2006, 6-9.
Maeda Yukio (2006), The 2005 General Election and Public Opinion, Social Science Japan Newsletter October 2006, 19-22.
Wikipedia: Toru Hashimoto
Ishin no To (Japan Times)
Karel van Wolfren: The Acquittal of Ichiro Ozawa
AsiaNews.it: The rise to power Ichiro Ozawa: the "shadow shogun"
Social Science Japan Newsletter 42, March 2010
Social Science Japan Newsletter 45, September 2011

C: The Political Economy of the Olympic Game 2020 (Stephane)

Japan Times on Olympic

14. (7/12) (Studentsf Presentation 2) Debate on Japanfs War Responsibility and Nationalism

D: Territorial Disputes (Raditya)

Territory (Japan Times)
Senkaku Video
Senkaku Islands Dispute
Kuril Islands Dispute
Takeshima Islands Dispute
Japan-Korea Disputes

E: Comfort Women Disputes (Logan)

Open Letter in Support of Historians in Japan
The Open Letter
Comfort Women (Japan Times)
History Recognition (Japan Times)

The Debate over Japanfs War Responsibility
Japan's History Textbook Debate
The Korean "Comfort Women": Movement for Redress
Performing Social Reparation: gComfort Womenh And The Path To Political Forgiveness
Channel Sakura
Channel Sakura on YouTube
THE FACTS
Focusing in on Contemporary Japanfs eYouthf Nationalism

F: North Korean Abductions (Attiya)

North Korean Abductions - Official Site by the Japanese Government
North Korean abductions of Japanese
BBC News (2008) N Korea abductions hamper Japan
Christopher Hughes (2009) "Super-Sizing" the DPRK Threat

Senkaku Islands (Japan Times)
Senkaku Video
Senkaku Islands Dispute

14. (7/19) (Students' Presentation 3)

G: The US-Japan Alliance and Collective Self-Defense (Orisa)

Collective Self-Defense (Japan Times)
Collective Self-Defense (Asahi Shimbun)
Fundamental Concepts of National Defense (Ministry of Defense, Japan)

Richard Armitage and Joseph Nye (2007) The US-Japan Alliance
Suzuki Eisuke: Japanfs Quiet Revolution and the US-Japan Alliance

H: Okinawa (Attiyya)

Okinawa (Japan Times)
Books on Okinawa - Google
Okinawa Prefecture- Wikipedia
Shimoji Yoshio: The Futenma Base and the U.S.-Japan Controversy: an Okinawan perspective
CLOSE THE BASE

I: Postwar Culture (Zaza)

Final Exam Take Home

Take-home Final Examination (New! 2016)

Other Readings

Japanese Welfare State

Goesta Esping-Andersen (1997) Hybrid or Unique?: the Japanese Welfare State Between Europe and America
Estevez-Abe et al (2001) Social Protection and the Formation of Skills: A Reinterpretation of the Welfare State
HIWATARI Nobuhiro (2009) Review of Estevez-Abe's "Welfare and Capitalism in Postwar Japan"
MIYAMOTO Taro (2003) Dynamics of the Japanese Welfare State in Comparative Perspective
UZUHASHI Takamitsu (2003) Japanese Model of Welfare State - How was it changed through the Lost Decade of the 1990s?
Charles Weathers (2009), Nonregular Workers and Inequality in Japan
TAKAO Yasuo (2009) Aging and Political Participation in Japan

Nagai, Akiko (2005), Marriage for Social Recognition and Subsequent Married Life.
Miwa Satoshi (2005), Educational Homogamy in Contemporary Japan.
Mayumi Nakamura (2005), University Education for Marital Status Attainment for Japanese Women.
Social Science Japan Newsletter December 2005, 6-14, Genda, Yuji (2007), Jobless Youths and the NEET Problem in Japan, Social Science Japan Journal, 10(1), 23-40.

The Politics of Economic Nationalism in Japan

Morishima, Michio (2000), The Japanese Financial System: Its Solidarity and Vulnerability, in Japan at a Deadlock, Macmillan UK.

Baumol, Litan, and Schramm (2007), Capitalism: The Different Types and Their Impacts on Growth, in Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity., Yale University Press.

Baumol, Litan, and Schramm (2007), Capitalism: The Big-Firm Wealthy Economies: Preventing Retreat and Stagnation, in Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism, and the Economics of Growth and Prosperity., Yale University Press.