Take-home Final Examination

Modern History of Japan II

2023/06/27

Answer to all the questions. The answers must be simple and short. Your answers must be based on what I talked in the class, while 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 Friday July 21. 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) Answer to all the questions.

1. How did PM Kishi of Japan try to revise the US-Japan security treaty in 1960?

2. How did PM Ikeda switch his target from something to another thing after the Anpo Struggle?

3. How did the marriage pattern change after WWII?

4. How was the marriage of Crown Prince Akihito with Shoda Michiko recognized by the Japanese people?

5. What did the Sazae-san Anime symbolize for the Japanese people?

6. How did Mishima Yukio criticize the post-war society of Japan?

7. Why was Minobe Ryokichi so important as the Tokyo -prefecture governor?

8. What are the Double Nixon Shocks? Why are they so shocking to the Japanese government?

9. What are the prides and burdens which the G7 Summits starting in the 1970s brought to the Japanese government?

10. Why were so many books on the nature of Japanese people published in 1980s?

11. What did the repeated scandal of the LDP politicians with big businesses in the 1970s through 1990s impress on Japanese citizens?

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

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

14. 1990 was a very important year for Japan as well as the world. Explain it.

15. How was the marriage of Owada Masako with Crown Prince Naruhito recognized by Japanese people?

16. Why were so many highly educated young people involved with the terrorists’ attack by the Aumu Shinrikyo?

17. What are the characteristics of the “Assisted Dating” prevailing among female high school students in 1990s?

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

19. What are the intellectual impacts of the Akihabara Case in 2008?

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

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

22. What is the major purpose of the three-party agreement proposed by the Noda cabinet in 2012?

23. What is the new interpretation of the Article 9 of the Japan’s constitution proposed by PM Abe Shinzo?

24. What are the two influential affairs that induced PM Abe to reinterpret the Article 9 of the Japan’s constitution?

25. Why did the “No Freedom of Expression” Exhibition at Nagoya make the right-wing people so angry?

26. What are the common characteristics shared by the newly emerging populist political parties in 2010s in Japan?

27. Explain the major political statements recently proposed by the Reiwa Shinsengumi.

28. Why did PM Suga resign in 2021?

29. Why did Tetsuya Yamagami kill Former PM Abe?

30. What are the two major policies targeted by the Kishida cabinet in 2023?

B) Select one issue out of the list and discuss freely on it. Your answer might be compared with the one generated by ChatGPT!

1. Relations between the changes in the marriage pattern in the post-war Japanese society and the current decline in the marriage rate

2. The “History Recognition” problem with China and Korea

3. The current increasing tension between China and the USA on Japan’s diplomatic policies.

4. The influence of the populism on Japanese voters

5. LGBTQ related issues