Japan remains one of the most intriguing yet least understood nations. In a much needed, balanced and comprehensive analysis, among other remarkable revelations, this book presents for the first time a vital key to understanding the organisation of Japan's society and the behaviour of its people. The Japanese are not driven by a universal morality based on Good and Evil, but by broad aesthetic concepts based on Pure and Impure. What they include as 'impure' will surprise many readers.

In a rare combination of comprehensive coverage and sustained critical focus, this book examines Japanese history in its entirety to identify the factors underlying the nation's progression to superpower status. Japan's achievement is explained not merely in economic terms, but at a more fundamental level, as a product of historical patterns of response to circumstance. Japan is shown to be a nation historically impelled by a pragmatic determination to succeed. The book also highlights unresolved questions and little-known facts.

As she describes the youth culture of Japan, Merry White draws comparisons with the interests and activities pursued by teenagers in the United States and the contrasting attitudes of adults in Japan and the U.S. towards adolescence. The result is both engrossing and enlightening.

This classic introduction to the Japanese political system has been revised and updated to take the account of a time of turmoil in the country's political life. It incorporates new coverage of the end of the Koizumi era, the brief and troubled premiership of Abe, and the selection of Fukuda as prime minister. This edition also includes expanded material on "bubble" and "post-bubble" economic developments, as well as all-new coverage of health care policy.The text opens with an overview of Japan's geographical setting and history. The next group of chapters covers political institutions, processes, and actors. Two sections then address the country's distinctive social order and economy, educational, healthcare, and public safety systems. Part five looks at the increasingly contentious realm of foreign relations and security issues, including China's expanding role and the issue of North Korea. A concluding section considers dynamics of change in Japanese politics.

This study is the first to assess the combined significance of the English-language newspapers of China, Japan and Korea in the period 1918-45. It not only frames the English-language press networks in the international media history of East Asia but also relates them to media developments in the ‘British world’ linking Fleet Street to the Empire and Dominions, and to the rise of the United States as a broker of international opinion on and in the Asia-Pacific. The English-language newspapers occupied a narrow but significant segment of the public sphere in East Asia in the inter-war years.As forums of opinion on Japanese, Chinese and Western interests in East Asia, they also served as vehicles of propaganda, particularly during the crisis-ridden 1930s and the Pacific War. With this examination of the media affiliations, editorial line, and access to official bodies in East Asia and theWest of most of the English-language newspapers published in East Asia in the period under review, the author demonstrates that these publications formed distinct networks in terms of the editorial positions they took vis-a-vis the key issues of the day, especially Japan’s imperial project in East Asia.

The 1996 Supplement of Political Science Abstracts contains 10,000 carefully prepared abstracts of materials from public affairs magazines, major newspapers, professional journals, and books devoted to politics and political analysis. The organization of the proceeding volumes has been retained intact, as has the recently added list of subdisciplinary descriptors. Users of earlier volumes will be on familiar ground, while those new to Political Science Abstracts will find the instructions on page ix easy to master. CONTENTS Volume 1 (This Volume) How to Use This Supplement . ix Political Science Subdisciplinary Descriptors xi Index of Terms ............... . xiii Abstracts of Documents in This Supplement. Volume 2 Bibliographic Index to the Abstracts (ABILITY-MINNESOTA) . 821 Volume 3 Bibliographic Index to the Abstracts (MINORITY-ZULU) 1565 Author Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2119 List of Periodicals Abstracted in This Supplement. 2121 HOW TO USE THIS SUPPLEMENT Three simple steps are all that are needed to introduce the user to this easily accessible indexing system. STEP 1: Turn to the Index of Terms and locate as many terms as possible that deal with your subject. If you are interested in coverage of a more generic nature, you may instead turn to the next page, where key descriptors are listed that are associated with the major subject areas in political science and with their subdivisions. Note that the index includes methodological as well as topical terms. Numerical listings (e.g., 24TH/PAR/C) are located at the end of the alphabetical listing.

This collection of essays by leading scholars and diplomats involved with the area examines the key political and economic issues facing Japan, Russia, and their neighbors since the end of the Cold War. The main goal is to analyze recent developments in Moscow-Tokyo bilateral relations and their growing interest in closer economic engagement, stability, and regional cooperation. The volume provides readers with an in-depth analysis of the very problems and opportunities that compelled the national leaders of Japan and Russia to drastically change the format and contents of the dialogue, to address the most critical issues not only of the moment but also for the future. The volume is a crucial resource for scholars, policy makers, and students involved with Asia-Pacific economic cooperation and Japanese and Russian foreign policy.

Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, and particularly after the opening brought about by economic reforms roughly thirty years thereafter, China has become an influential player in regional and global affairs. Increasingly, both American and European policymakers examine Chinese foreign policy as a flexible, pragmatic, and significant element in world affairs. This has accelerated in the middle of the new first decade of this century, as business firms and political officials have developed interests in the sources, processes, and significance of China's reemergence as a global force. This volume examines how, in conjunction with rapid economic growth and profound social transformation, China's foreign policy is experiencing significant transition. The purpose of this truly deep and probing collection is to deepen Western understanding of the sources, substance, and significance of Chinese foreign policy--with a focus on the post Cold War environment. Contributors include academic specialists, area researchers, and distinguished journalists, all with firsthand experience in the field of China studies. The volume is divided into four parts: (1) theory and culture; (2) perspective and identity; (3) bilateral relationships; and (4) retrospective and prospective essays on Chinese policy concerns. The volume is sensitive to changes in national leadership and Communist Party structure as well as continuity and change in foreign policy. As Lowell Dittmer of the University of California notes in his Foreword, "precisely because it is so difficult to do well, the analysis of foreign policy is often conducted rather tritely. Thus it is a real pleasure to find assembled here a treasure trove of some of the finest work by some of the field's most penetrating minds. This is fortunate, for at the core of this volume is one of the biggest and most portentous questions to confront the world at the outset of the twenty-first century. That question is: in the decades to come, what role will China play in the world? As the homeland of about a fifth of mankind, this question is almost guaranteed relevance whatever the fate of China's domestic economy." Guoli Liu is associate professor of political science and international relations at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. "[Chinese Foreign Policy in Transition] is an extremely useful collection of articles by leading China scholars." Lucian W. Pye, Foreign Affairs