Contemporary Japan (2nd Ed.)
History, Politics, and Social Change since the 1980s
Blackwell History of the Contemporary World Series

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Language: English

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328 p. · 15x22.6 cm · Paperback
The second edition of this comprehensive study of recent Japanese history now includes the author's expert assessment of the effects of the earthquake and tsunami, including the political and environmental consequences of the Fukushima reactor meltdown.
  • Fully updated to include a detailed assessment of the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami
  • Shows how the nuclear crisis at Fukushima was an accident waiting to happen
  • Includes detailed discussion of Japan's energy policy, now in flux after the mishandling of the Fukushima crisis
  • Analyzes Japan's 'Lost Decades', why jobs and families are less stable, environmental policies, immigration, the aging society, the US alliance, the imperial family, and the 'yakuza' criminal gangs
  • Authoritative coverage of Japanese history over the last two decades, one of the country's most tumultuous periods

Map vii

Series Editor’s Preface viii

Acknowledgments x

Part I Introduction 1

1 Transformations After World War II 3

2 The Lost Decade 23

Part II Risk and Consequences 39

3 Defusing the Demographic Time Bomb 41

4 Families at Risk 60

5 Jobs at Risk 77

Part III Politics and Consequences 93

6 Contemporary Politics 95

7 Security and the Peace Constitution 115

8 Immigration 136

9 War Memory and Responsibility 154

Part IV Environment and Disaster 175

10 Environmental Issues 177

11 3/11: Earthquake, Tsunami, and Nuclear Crisis 198

Part V Institutions at Risk 221

12 The Imperial Family 223

13 Yakuza 241

Part VI Postscript 261

14 Prospects 263

Glossary 270

Notes 278

Further Reading 293

Index 302

Jeff Kingston is Professor of History and Director of Asian Studies at the Japan Campus of Temple University. He has written widely on modern Japanese history and Japan's relations with Asia, including the books Japan in Transformation 1952–2000 (2001) and Japan's Quiet Transformation: Social Change and Civil Society in the 21st Century (2004). He has also edited Natural Disaster and Nuclear Crisis in Japan (2012). With academic interests that include a broader regional purview, he contributes to a variety of major publications and is regularly interviewed by global media outlets.