Modern History of Japan II

Ryoichi Imai

Kyushu University

 

2024/07/02

 

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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.

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.

If you need to acquire three credits in accordance with the credit transfer policy of your home university, you can get three credits by making a second presentation in different topics in addition to the requirements as above.

Settlement for the Covid-19 pandemic

Some or all the lectures might be recorded and uploaded somewhere. Wait for the notice.

Schedule and Readings (subject to Change)

Lecture

1 (4/2). A Short History of Japan before the Showa Era

        History of Japan

2 (4/9). Economy and Society

3 (4/16) Democracy and Empire between the World Wars 

            Empire and Domestic Order (Last Semester)

4 (4/23). The Depression Crisis and Responses

The Factory Ship (Takiji Kobayashi) Manga in J

5. (5/7) Japan in Wartime

6 (5/14). Occupied Japan: New Departures and Durable Structures

玉音放送1945.8.15

Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the Greater East Asia War

Commonwealth of Nations   Head of the Commonwealth

7 (5/21).  Economic and Social Transformations

Brakumin (Wikipedia)
The Initiative by Fukuoka City toward Equal Human Rights

松本龍 Ryu Matsumoto

8  (5/28) Political Struggles and the High-Growth Era

9 (6/4) Political Struggles and the High-Growth Era 2

10 (6/11). Global Power in a Polarized World: Japan in the 1980s

11 (6/18). Beyond the Postwar Era 1

12. (6/25). Beyond the Postwar Era 2

13 (7/2) Religion of Japan

14 (7/9) Students Presentation 1

15 (7/16) Students Presentation 2

Assignments for Credits

I.          Presentation Slide new 2024

II.          Take-home Final Examination new 2024

Course Evaluation: Click and follow the instructions History (sample 2020)

Course Materials in the past are below

Past Materials

Journal Resources:

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

Japan in 20**, Asian Survey (2009-2013)

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.