Take-home Final Examination

Modern History of Japan II

2021/06/12

Answer to all the questions. The answers must be simple and short. A simple copy of my lecture note will be downgraded. Follow the following instruction.

1 Convert your file to a PDF format (.pdf).

2 Name the file as < LAST-First-Course title> like <YAMADA-Taro-History>

3 Upload your pdf file to my JTW-history folder at the file sharing system of the Kyushu University by Sunday July 18. No late submission will be accepted

4 Do not send your work by e-mail. Do not bring it to my office in a USB memory. Thank you for your cooperation

A) Who are the following famous (or notorious) figures in Japanese history?

1. A prime minister who signed the revised US-Japan security treaty in 1960

2. A prime minister who proposed the “income doubling plan”in 1960.

3. A daughter born in a capitalist family, later married with our Crown Prince Akihito in 1959

4. A famous novelist who wrote Kinkakuji and other well-known titles, and later killed himself in Harakiri after a desperate call to the Self Defense Force for a coup d’état in 1970..

5. A famous Tokyo-prefecture governor and a symbol of the progressive local leadership in 1970s

6. A notorious LDP leader of 1970s, who was arrested by police in the Lockheed Scandal

7. A famous opposition party leader, who brought a land-sliding victory to her party in the Upper House election when LDP was involved with the Recruit scandal in 1989.

8. A political leader, who broke LDP leadership to form a reform-oriented coalition government in 1994, later became a leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)?

9. A religious cult leader, who plotted the poisonous gas attack on the subway passengers in Tokyo in 1995.

10. A Harvard graduate, who abandoned her career as a diplomat and married with Crown Prince Naruhito in 1993.

11. An LDP leader who led a “structural reform”of Japanese economy in the early 2000s.

12. A DPJ prime minister, who succeeded Kan in 2011 and agreed on the consumption tax rate rise with the LDP and the Komeito Party in 2012?

13. A newly emerging local leader in Osaka, who proposes dictatorship as the way to recover the integrity in Japan’s politics today

14. A Tokyo Prefecture governor in 2000s, who is notorious for his discriminating words against immigrants and social minorities.

15. A political party founded by Yamamoto Taro who called for anti-austerity fiscal policies?

16. A prime minister of Japan in June 2021?

B) Explain the following special terms (events, incidents, etc.).

1. Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the Greater East Asia War

2. Sazae-san

3. Income Doubling Plan

4. The Nixon Shock

5. Super 301 clause

6. Structural Impediments Initiative Negotiations

7. G7

8. Plaza Accord 1985

9. The Treaty on Basic Relations 1965 (with South Korea)

10. “history recognition”issues

11. Anatomy of Dependence

12. Nakasone Yasuhiro

13. The Recruit Scandal

14. Aumu Shinrikyo

15. Futenma Base Problem

16. The Great East-Japan Earthquake

17. Assisted dating

18. “No Freedom of Expression” Exhibition

19. The Gulf War 1990

20. The Iraq War 2003

21. The Restauration Party

C) Answer to all the following questions.

1. How did the marriage pattern change after WWII?

2. What were the Double Nixon Shocks?

3. Economic policy coordination among leading nations was discussed in the Summit meetings, starting in 1975. How did the participation to them affect Japan?

4. How did the Equal Employment Opportunity Law for Men and Women (1985) change the employment environment?

5. Explain Shinjinrui as the new social trend emerging in 1980s.

6. 1990 was a very important year for Japan as well as the world. Explain it.

7. Why did Koizumi pay his first visit as a prime minister of Japan to the Yasukuni Shrine on August 15, 2006?

8. Why is the 2009 election so important in the development of democracy in Japan?

9. What are the two factors that forced Hatoyama cabinet to fail in 2010?

10. Why is Japan’s criminal justice considered to be so unique?

11. What is the Akihabara case?

12. PM Abe proposes a new interpretation of the Article 9 of the Constitution. Why?

13. What are the four claims of populist politicians?

14. What is the major reason why corona vaccination was so low in Japan?

15. What are the major reasons why hospitals in Japan are unable to mobilize medical resources so fast to accept coronary patients?

16. What are the three industries that are the most seriously damaged by the corona infection?