Japan's Demographic Revival shifts discussions about employing immigration as the 'best' or 'sole' solution to assuaging Japan's demographic quagmire to a more systematic approach that identifies structural, organizational and cultural impediments that contribute to Japan's (and other countries') declining demographic situations. This edited volume also sheds light on the plethora of changes required to produce a demographically sustainable Japan.Part One includes chapters explaining the endogenous, ethnocultural and structural obstacles that link ethnocultural understandings of citizenship and nationality. Part Two consists of chapters that provide insight into the societal barriers that exist in Japan to address demographic issues. Part Three shifts its focus away from identifying and analyzing the structural, organizational and cultural factors towards chapters that are policy oriented, linking existing policies as contributing factors behind Japan's demographic challenge.

This book focuses on Japan's recent recovery from a decade-long stagnation, with particular attention to the unfinished policy agenda and the international spillovers of Japan's policies, through background studies (both analytical and descriptive) by IMF economists.

Japan will recover and its economic achievements will once again earn the world's admiration, with sustained annual growth of three percent, perhaps more, well within reach. This is the confident forecast that begins Japanese Phoenix: The Long Road to Economic Revival by the author of Japan: The System That Soured, which several years ago accurately predicted Japan's current travails at a time when others were prematurely pronouncing full recovery. Katz warns however that there is bad news to go with the good. So deep-seated are Japan's dysfunctions that, even if it did everything right today, it would take at least five years for truly vibrant growth to take hold. But Japan will not do everything right. Opposition to reform is deep-seated and a myriad of vested interests and millions of jobs are at stake. Still he notes, there is little doubt that reform will succeed. Japanese Phoenix tells the story of the struggle between the forces of reform and the forces of resistance. It dissects Prime Minister Koizumi's role in the process, and explains why Japan is in so much trouble and what needs to be done. It explore the debates among economists and gives a careful progress report on all the moves made so far in the name of reform - from greater direct foreign investment, to the financial "Big Bang", to ending one-party rule by the Liberal Democratic Party. Katz concludes that this is just the second round of a 15-round fight. Japan is a great nation currently trapped in obsolete institutions. As it has before, Japan will find a way to surmount its problems and regain its forward progress.

This Companion is a comprehensive examination of the varied ways in which gender issues manifest throughout culture in Japan, using a range of international perspectives to examine private and public constructions of identity, as well as gender- and sexuality-inflected cultural production. The Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture features both new work and updated accounts of classic scholarship, providing a go-to reference work for contemporary scholarship on gender in Japanese culture. The volume is interdisciplinary in scope, with chapters drawing from a range of perspectives, fields, and disciplines, including anthropology, art history, history, law, linguistics, literature, media and cultural studies, politics, and sociology. This reflects the fundamentally interdisciplinary nature of the dual focal points of this volume—gender and culture—and the ways in which these themes infuse a range of disciplines and subfields. In this volume, Jennifer Coates, Lucy Fraser, and Mark Pendleton have brought together an essential guide to experiences of gender in Japanese culture today—perfect for students, scholars, and anyone else interested in Japan, culture, gender studies, and beyond.

A demographic and ethnographic exploration of how the aging Japanese society is affecting the family.

Christian-Muslim Relations. A Bibliographical History 16 is about relations between the two faiths in North America, South-East Asia, China, Japan and Australasia from 1800 to 1914. It gives descriptions, assessments and bibliographical details of all known works from this period.

The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Japan presents a synthesized, interdisciplinary study of contemporary Japan based on up-to-date theoretical models designed to provide readers with a comprehensive and full understanding of the dynamics of contemporary Japan. In order to achieve this, the Handbook is organized into two parts. Part I, ‘Foundations’, clarifies the state of contemporary Japan topic by topic by referring to the latest theoretical developments in the relevant disciplinary fields of politics, international relations, economy, society, culture and the personal. Part II, ‘Issues’, then offers a series of concrete analyses building upon the theoretical discussions introduced in Part I to help undergraduate and postgraduate students learn how to conduct independent analysis. Locating Japan in a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, this Handbook is an essential resource for students and scholars interested in Japanese studies, Asian studies and global studies.

This original and panoramic book proposes that the underlying forces of demography and globalisation will shortly reverse three multi-decade global trends – it will raise inflation and interest rates, but lead to a pullback in inequality. “Whatever the future holds”, the authors argue, “it will be nothing like the past”. Deflationary headwinds over the last three decades have been primarily due to an enormous surge in the world’s available labour supply, owing to very favourable demographic trends and the entry of China and Eastern Europe into the world’s trading system. This book demonstrates how these demographic trends are on the point of reversing sharply, coinciding with a retreat from globalisation. The result? Ageing can be expected to raise inflation and interest rates, bringing a slew of problems for an over-indebted world economy, but is also anticipated to increase the share of labour, so that inequality falls. Covering many social and political factors, as well as those that are more purely macroeconomic, the authors address topics including ageing, dementia, inequality, populism, retirement and debt finance, among others. This book will be of interest and understandable to anyone with an interest on where the world’s economy may be going.

Japan is embarked on a demographic transition without precedent in human history: the population is both declining and ageing rapidly. This raises important questions about the country's future economic geography, as public policies will need both to respond to these shifts and also to shape them.

Japan has navigated the dual shock of the pandemic and the energy crisis well. However, significant headwinds from weak global growth, geopolitical tensions and high inflation highlight the importance of enhancing the Japanese economy’s resilience to shocks. In a context of inflation, which has risen above target, and pressures from divergent monetary policy from peers, adjustments to monetary policy settings have commenced. Given high public debt, fiscal consolidation to rebuild fiscal buffers, underpinned by a credible medium-term fiscal framework to put the debt-to-GDP ratio on a clear downward path, is key. Longer-term sustainability also requires reducing greenhouse gas emissions in line with government targets, calling for green investment, innovation and carbon pricing. Reforms to improve the innovation framework and incentives for start-ups are key to boost productivity and address ageing pressures. Removing obstacles to the employment of women and older persons and making greater use of foreign workers are also essential to counter demographic headwinds. Strengthening the financial position of young people and policies to support families and children, such as improved parental leave, would help to reverse the downward trend in the fertility rate. SPECIAL FEATURE: ADDRESSING DEMOGRAPHIC HEADWINDS