Among the challenges facing Japan in its quest to match the
modern states of the Western world, none was more crucial than the
development of agriculture. With a state focused more on the
emblematic ...goals of mechanization, urbanization, and a modern
military, it fell upon local elites in villages across the country
to bring rice production into the modern era. Middlemen of
Modernity explores these elites and their actions in a region in
northeastern Japan, presenting a view of the transformation of
Japanese agriculture from the late nineteenth century to the
mid-twentieth century. Meiji-era agricultural policy called for
village elites to mobilize their wealth and local reputations to
introduce improved farming methods, transform the physical
landscape, and increase agricultural production. Farmers looked to
the same figures to use their elevated status and government
connections to direct public funds toward building prosperous
villages. But economic shocks and social change created a new
generation of elites with their own vision for agricultural
improvement, leading to conditions that caused famine, economic
disparity, and village unrest. The official and local responses to
these discrepancies brought an end to the elite leadership of
agricultural development at the beginning of the twentieth century,
but its legacy set the course for farming and rural Japanese
society for the next half century. Middlemen of Modernity offers a
new perspective on Japanese modernization, one in which farming
villages were neither premodern relics nor secondary concerns for
the architects of the new nation. Modernity was worked out in the
mud of rice paddies, as much as in any stateroom or factory, and
the communities of Miyagi and villages throughout Japan helped
shape the modern state, even as they were shaped by it. Mining a
wealth of local sources, Christopher Craig provides a comprehensive
study studded with stories of individual actors that remains
closely connected to Japan's development and presents a history of
agriculture from the early Meiji period to the postwar American
occupation. Craig also engages with scholarship in environmental
history and food studies, and his detailed treatment of the
interactions between local villagers and central bureaucrats makes
a valuable contribution to studies of state-society relations.
Tracing the trans-Pacific tea trade from the eighteenth century onward, Green with Milk and Sugar shows how the interconnections between Japan and the United States have influenced the daily habits ...of people in both countries. Robert Hellyer explores the forgotten American penchant for Japanese green tea and how it shaped Japanese tastes.
Revolution Goes East is an intellectual history that applies a novel global perspective to the classic story of the rise of communism and the various reactions it provoked in Imperial Japan. Tatiana ...Linkhoeva demonstrates how contemporary discussions of the Russian Revolution, its containment, and the issue of imperialism played a fundamental role in shaping Japan's imperial society and state. In this bold approach, Linkhoeva explores attitudes toward the Soviet Union and the communist movement among the Japanese military and politicians, as well as interwar leftist and rightist intellectuals and activists. Her book draws on extensive research in both published and archival documents, including memoirs, newspaper and journal articles, political pamphlets, and Comintern archives. Revolution Goes East presents us with a compelling argument that the interwar Japanese Left replicated the Orientalist outlook of Marxism-Leninism in its relationship with the rest of Asia, and that this proved to be its undoing. Furthermore, Linkhoeva shows that Japanese imperial anticommunism was based on geopolitical interests for the stability of the empire rather than on fear of communist ideology. Thanks to generous funding from New York University and its participation in TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access (OA) volumes, available from Cornell Open (cornellopen.org) and other Open Access repositories.
With an author’s Foreword written on the day that the Abe cabinet decided to ‘revise the Japanese Constitution by reinterpretation’ (Tuesday, 1 July 2014), this timely examination of Japan’s post-war ...history by two leading historians committed to democratic politics is highly challenging and prompts serious reflection by anyone concerned with the future of Japan. The Abe Experiment and the Future of Japan records a wide-ranging dialogue between two eminent Japanese scholars – Banno a political historian and Yamaguchi a political scientist – regarding Japan’s modern political history, with particular emphasis on what they perceive as disturbing parallels between the 1930s and the recent policy trajectory, in which relations with Japan’s immediate neighbours have seriously deteriorated. Original Japanese edition 2014 by Iwanami Shinsho
Using the Euro-American theoretical framework of postmodernism, feminism and post-colonialism, this book analyses the fictional and critical work of four contemporary Japanese writers; Murakami ...Haruki, Yoshimoto Banana, Yoshimoto Takaaki and Karatani Kojin. In addition the author reconsiders this Euro-American theory by looking back on it from the perspective of Japanese literary work.
Presenting outstanding analysis of Japanese intellectuals and writers who have received little attention in the West, the book also includes an extensive and comprehensive bibliography making it essential reading for those studying Japanese literature, Japanese studies and Japanese thinkers.
Gorbachev's transformation of both Soviet socialism and the Cold War world atmosphere kindled a far-reaching debate in Japan. Would Japan at last free itself of its secondary postwar standing? Would ...a new Soviet system and world order soon be established? Gilbert Rozman argues in Japan's Response to the Gorbachev Era, that Japanese perceptions of the Soviet Union are distinctive and are helpful for understanding what will become an influential worldview. Focusing on diverse opinion leaders and the relationship between the Japanese media, policy-making, and public opinion, Rozman shows how long-standing negative images of Soviet socialism and militarism have been reconsidered since the mid-1980s. His analysis treats burning issues such as the Northern Territories dispute, the Soviet commitment to reform, and the Soviet-American relationship. It also sheds light on Japanese views of Soviet history, modernization, and national character. Such views reveal some of the building blocks for the emergent Japanese worldview.
Originally published in 1992.
ThePrinceton Legacy Libraryuses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Japan on the Silk Road provides the historical background indispensable for understanding today's Japan perspectives and policies in the vast area of Eurasia. For the first time it brings a detailed ...account of the history of Japanese activities along the Eurasian landmass across the Middle East and Central Asia in modern history.
There is more to Japanese sport than sumo, karate and baseball. This study of social sport in Japan pursues a comprehensive approach towards sport as a distinctive cultural sphere at the intersection ...of body culture, political economy, and cultural globalization. Bridging the gap between Bourdieu and Foucault, it explains the significance of the body as a field of action and a topic of discourse in molding subject and society in modern Japan. More specifically, it provides answers to questions such as how and to what purposes are politics of the body articulated in Japan, particularly in the realm of sport? What is the agenda of state actors that develop politics aiming at the body, and to what degree are political and societal objectives impacted by commercial and non-political actors? How are political decisions on the allocation of resources made, and what are their consequences for sporting opportunities and practices of the body in general? Without neglecting the significance of sport spectatorship, this study takes a particular angle by looking at sport as a field of practice, pain and pleasure.
