Project Japan is the product of a long journey by author Graham Cooper. A sustained rolling programme relating to contemporary art and architecture in Japan, this project involved over a decade of commitment, more than a dozen research and documentation

In the twentieth century Japan emerged as one of the world’s leading economic powers: rising from wartime destruction to a leading economic engine in world markets. Japan’s economic aid policy, beginning with war reparations following its defeat in World War II, became a vehicle to help achieve this economic success. As the country continued to flourish, economic aid also became a means of expanding the country’s influence in an era of increasing globalization, providing an alternative strategy for helping developing nations escape the traps of poverty: a strategy drawn from its own experience of reemergence. And as we stand at the beginning of a new century, Japanese aid policy may also serve as a potential model for other nations who are on the cusp of entering high-income status and the group of elite world donors: a model that in many ways lies in contrast to policies espoused by other advanced Western nations. The book Japan’s Aid examines the strengths and weaknesses of Japanese aid policy in all of these dimensions: in fostering economic growth in both its own economic success story and in the numerous countries to which it has served as the single largest bilateral donor over many years; and as a policy that other nations might emulate. Through a combination of insightful case studies and rigorous econometric investigation, the book presents a comprehensive examination of the pros and cons of Japan’s aid.

What China’s infamous railway initiative can teach us about global dominance. In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled what would come to be known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—a global development strategy involving infrastructure projects and associated financing throughout the world, including Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas. While the Chinese government has framed the plan as one promoting transnational connectivity, critics and security experts see it as part of a larger strategy to achieve global dominance. Rivers of Iron examines one aspect of President Xi Jinping’s “New Era”: China’s effort to create an intercountry railway system connecting China and its seven Southeast Asian neighbors (Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam). This book illuminates the political strengths and weaknesses of the plan, as well as the capacity of the impacted countries to resist, shape, and even take advantage of China’s wide-reaching actions. Using frameworks from the fields of international relations and comparative politics, the authors of Rivers of Iron seek to explain how domestic politics in these eight Asian nations shaped their varying external responses and behaviors. How does China wield power using infrastructure? Do smaller states have agency? How should we understand the role of infrastructure in broader development? Does industrial policy work? And crucially, how should competing global powers respond?

This book examines Japanese post-Cold War security policy, analyzing how Japan reacted to the end of the Cold War, the results of the transformation in the post-Cold War security environment, and exactly how Japanese security has changed from its Cold War design.

Once the world's largest ODA provider, contemporary Japan seems much less visible in international development. However, this book demonstrates that Japan, with its own aid philosophy, experiences, and models of aid, has ample lessons to offer to the international community as the latter seeks new paradigms of development cooperation.

A symbol of the "new Japan" displayed at World's Fairs, depicted in travel posters, and celebrated as the product of a national spirit of innovation, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen—the first bullet train, dubbed the "dream super-express"—represents the bold aspirations of a nation rebranding itself after military defeat, but also the deep problems caused by the unbridled postwar drive for economic growth. At the dawn of the space age, how could a train become such an important symbol? In Dream Super-Express, Jessamyn Abel contends that understanding the various, often contradictory, images of the bullet train reveals how infrastructure operates beyond its intended use as a means of transportation to perform cultural and sociological functions. The multi-layered dreams surrounding this high-speed railway tell a history not only of nation-building but of resistance and disruption. Though it constituted neither a major technological leap nor a new infrastructural connection, the train enchanted, enthralled, and enraged government officials, media pundits, community activists, novelists, and filmmakers. This history of imaginations around the monumental rail system resists the commonplace story of progress to consider the tug-of-war over the significance of the new line. Is it a vision of the future or a reminder of the past, an object of international admiration or a formidable threat? Does it enable new relationships and identities or reify existing social hierarchies? Tracing the meanings assigned to high-speed rail shows how it prompted a reimagination of identity on the levels of individual, metropolis, and nation in a changing Japan.

In the early 1980s, biotechnology caused worldwide excitement as a high technology with almost unlimited potential in science, medicine, and industry. It not only allowed the manufacture of traditional products more quickly and inexpensively, but also offered the possibility of synthesizing valuable materials anew. All this made it very attractive to Japanese policymakers, who ‘targeted’ it as a high priority area for economic growth. Originally published in 1989, Biotechnology in Japan is the first published in English to analyse the Japanese effort to promote the new biotechnology industries. The author examines the strategies used for developing biotechnology in Japan and looks at the active role of government in a field in which the Japanese rapidly became the world leaders. Focusing on the making and implementation of biotechnology policy, he considers the relationship between the public and the private sector, and makes use of different political constructs to analyse Japan’s complex and unique balance between competitive market forces and collective interest.

Instead of asking the usual questions about Japanese aid — Why is Japanese aid so different from that of other donors? Is Japanese aid effective? — this collection takes it as axiomatic that Japanese aid actors are now working in a contentious environment affected by changing global norms of aid. Japanese Aid and the Construction of Global Development analyses the changing political contexts, both at home and abroad, within which Japanese aid officials develop their programs. It tracks the tensions facing aid officials as they seek to negotiate between a long-term organizational bias in the Japanese government of promoting "growth-oriented" policies, and new demands for Japan to engage a broader array of "human security" concerns. In the third section, contributors provide case studies of new policies designed to cope with transnational human security issues, particularly involving environmental protection, gender equality, and the spread of HIV/AIDS. Finally, the book turns its lens back to Japan with chapters on how changing aid relationships alter Japan’s ability to cope with transnational problems like refugee flows, sex trafficking, and terrorism. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of the politics and culture of global development, Japanese politics and foreign policy, international relations and international law.

For readers who enjoyed Finding the Mother Tree and The Hidden Life of Trees comes the first-ever book about a movement to restore biodiversity in our cities and towns by flipping empty lots, backyards, and degraded land into mini-forests. In Mini-Forest Revolution, author Hannah Lewis presents a compelling case that what the world needs is not a corporate-sponsored “Trillion Tree Campaign,” but instead a people-powered “plant a million mini-forests” effort. After all, nature is composed of functioning ecosystems, not tree plantations. Lewis presents the Miyawaki Method, a unique approach to reforestation devised by botanist Akira Miyawaki in response to Japan’s rapid post-war development. She explains the scientific basis for why Miyawaki-style mini-forest projects matter and how they work, including how biodiversity increases ecosystem productivity and resilience, how vegetation transforms solar energy into latent heat and releases it away from Earth, and the role of native climax species in replicating the composition of ancient forests. Lewis also explores the multi-faceted benefits of planting a mini-forest, including: • Cooling urban heat islands • Sequestering carbon • Building soil health • Increasing water retention in dry or degraded landscapes • Establishing wildlife corridors • Healing communities working to recover from trauma • Helping urban youth connect with nature Today, the Miyawaki Method is witnessing a worldwide surge in popularity as communities seek to restore degraded landscapes both urban and rural. Lewis shares the stories of mini-forests that have sprung up across the globe and the people who are planting them—from a young forest along the concrete alley of the Beirut River in Lebanon, to a forest that is recharging groundwater in Cameroon, to the backyard forest planted by tiny forest champion Shubhendu Sharma in India. Mini-Forest Revolution is complete with a step-by-step field manual for designing and planting a forest using the Miyawaki Method, with special attention to the process of developing a list of appropriate species and their respective proportions. No matter where you live, this book will inspire you to help organize a mini-forest project in your own community, and that may be one of the best decisions you can make.