This collection of scholarly papers examines the influence of Japanese dominance on the politics, economies, and cultures of Southeast Asia. A major question probed is whether Japan has now attained, through economic power, the predominance it once sought through military means. Japan's hegemonic system is not the first to work over the area--before it were those from China, from Britain, from the United States. This collection's comparative perspective acknowledges the distinctiveness of Asian regionalism and Japan's changing role with it. As the subtitle of this book indicates, it is concerned with Japan and Asia and not with Japan in Asia, thus suggesting a complex and at the same time problematical regional identity for Japan.
Japan's Foreign Relations in Asia has been specifically designed to introduce students to Japan’s foreign relations in Asia since 1990, a period in which there have been dramatic developments in Japan, including the reinterpretation of the Constitution and expanded US–Japan defence cooperation. The geopolitical dynamics and implications of these new developments are profound and underscore the need for a new textbook on this subject. Covering not only the key regional players of China and the Koreas, this textbook also encompasses chapters on Japan’s relations with India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand, along with its multilateral engagement and initiatives. Combined with transnational chapters on critical issues, key themes covered by this book include: An historical overview of key post-war developments. Japan’s evolving security policy. Analysis of the region’s escalating maritime disputes. An evaluation of Japanese soft power in Asia. Written by leading experts in accessible, jargon-free style, this new textbook will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students of Japanese politics, international relations and foreign policy and Asian affairs in general.
This wide-ranging collection seeks to reassess conventional understanding of Japan’s Asia-Pacific War by defamiliarizing and expanding the rhetorical narrative. Its nine chapters, diverse in theme and method, are united in their goal to recover a measured historicity about the conflict by either introducing new areas of knowledge or reinterpreting existing ones. Collectively, they cast doubt on the war as familiar and recognizable, compelling readers to view it with fresh eyes. Following an introduction that problematizes timeworn narratives about a “unified Japan” and its “illegal war” or “race war,” early chapters on the destruction of Japan’s diplomatic records and government interest in an egalitarian health care policy before, during, and after the war oblige us to question selective histories and moral judgments about wartime Japan. The discussion then turns to artistic/cultural production and self-determination, specifically to Osaka rakugo performers who used comedy to contend with state oppression and to the role of women in creating care packages for soldiers abroad. Other chapters cast doubt on well-trod stereotypes (Japan’s lack of pragmatism in its diplomatic relations with neutral nations and its irrational and fatalistic military leadership) and examine resistance to the war by a prominent Japanese Christian intellectual. The volume concludes with two nuanced responses to race in wartime Japan, one maintaining the importance of racial categories while recognizing the “performance of Japaneseness,” the other observing that communities often reflected official government policies through nationality rather than race. Contrasting findings like these underscore the need to ask new questions and fill old gaps in our understanding of a historical event that, after more than seventy years, remains as provocative and divisive as ever. Defamiliarizing Japan’s Asia-Pacific War will find a ready audience among World War II historians as well as specialists in war and society, social history, and the growing fields of material culture and civic history.
“Arguably the greatest living travel writer” (Outside magazine), Pico Iyer has called Japan home for more than three decades. But, as he is the first to admit, the country remains an enigma even to its long-term residents. In A Beginner’s Guide to Japan, Iyer draws on his years of experience—his travels, conversations, readings, and reflections—to craft a playful and profound book of surprising, brief, incisive glimpses into Japanese culture. He recounts his adventures and observations as he travels from a meditation hall to a love hotel, from West Point to Kyoto Station, and from dinner with Meryl Streep to an ill-fated call to the Apple service center in a series of provocations guaranteed to pique the interest and curiosity of those who don’t know Japan—and to remind those who do of its myriad fascinations.
Viewing the rise of China from Japan's perspective, the author elucidates Japanese policy responses and their implications for regional institution building. It fills a gap in knowledge about the development of East Asian regional institutions and Sino-Japanese relationships.
Japan's regional geoeconomic strategy -- Foreign economic policy, domestic institutions and regional governance -- Geoeconomics of the Asia-Pacific -- Transformation in the Japanese political economy -- Trade and investment : a gradual path -- Money and finance : an uneven path -- Development and foreign aid : a hybrid path.
The volume includes chapters on the Japanese imperial campaign in India, Tibet, Siberia, Mongolia, Korea, Manchukuo, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
In the decades since her defeat in the Second World War, Japan has continued to loom large in the national imagination of many of her East Asian neighbours. While for many, Japan still conjures up images of rampant military brutality, at different times and in different communities, alternative images of the Japanese ‘Other’ have vied for predominance – in ways that remain poorly understood, not least within Japan itself. Imagining Japan in Postwar East Asia analyses the portrayal of Japan in the societies of East and Southeast Asia, and asks how and why this has changed in recent decades, and what these changing images of Japan reveal about the ways in which these societies construct their own identities. It examines the role played by an imagined ‘Japan’ in the construction of national selves across the East Asian region, as mediated through a broad range of media ranging from school curricula and textbooks to film, television, literature and comics. Commencing with an extensive thematic and comparative overview chapter, the volume also includes contributions focusing specifically on Chinese societies (the mainland PRC, Hong Kong and Taiwan), Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. These studies show how changes in the representation of Japan have been related to political, social and cultural shifts within the societies of East Asia – and in particular to the ways in which these societies have imagined or constructed their own identities. Bringing together contributors working in the fields of education, anthropology, history, sociology, political science and media studies, this interdisciplinary volume will be of interest to all students and scholars concerned with issues of identity, politics and culture in the societies of East Asia, and to those seeking a deeper understanding of Japan’s fraught relations with its regional neighbours.
Throughout its history, Japan has been an outlier, a country "in" but in many ways not "of" Asia. In premodern times it was set off by its feudal order, its refusal to participate in the Chinese tributary system, and its withdrawal into national seclusion. Modern Japan has oscillated, at times violently, between Asia and the West. In the late 19th century, it "quit Asia" and joined the West, remaking itself into a Western-style industrial and military power and carving out an Asian empire, largely at the expense of China and Korea. In the 1930s, it rejected the West and embarked on a crusade to liberate Asia from Western dominance, which led it in 1945 to the unprecedented catastrophe of total defeat and foreign occupation. Postwar Japan again embraced the West, reinventing itself as a democratic "peace state" and economic superpower. Sheltered behind the American alliance, the Japanese retreated from international politics and focused on economic growth. They returned to Asia, this time as its economic model, mentor. and -- increasingly -- leader. At the end of the Cold War, Japan seemed poised to once again reject the West and seek Asian leadership. Instead, post-Cold War Japan tilted toward the United States and moved tentatively to assume "normal" international political-military responsibilities. It is as yet unclear where the Japanese will find a balance among an Asian role, the American alliance, and a "normal" international political-military role. One can be sure, however, that Japan's future will be conditioned by its past. It thus becomes of interest to examine more closely how Japan has interacted with Asia and the West over time.
