Modern History of
Japan II
Ryoichi
Imai
Kyushu University
2024/04/01
Contents
2. Organization,
Attendance, and Other Requirements
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.
None.
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
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
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
Anti-Discrimination
Initiative by Kikuchi City of Kumamoto Prefecture (J)
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) Beyond the
Postwar Era 3
14 (7/9) Students’ Presentation 1
15 (7/16) Students’ Presentation 2
Assignments for Credits
I.
Take-home
Final Examination sample 2023
II.
Presentation Slide
sample 2023
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 JapanNagai, 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.