Myles Carroll

The Making of Modern Japan

Power, Crisis, and the Promise of Transformation

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

In The Making of Modern Japan, Myles Carroll offers a sweeping account of post-war Japanese political economy, exploring the transition from the post-war boom to the crisis of today and the connections between these seemingly discrete periods. Carroll explores the multifarious international and domestic political, economic, social and cultural conditions that fortified Japan's post-war hegemonic order and enabled decades of prosperity and stability. Yet since the 1990s, a host of political, economic, social and cultural changes has left this same hegemonic order out of step with the realities of the contemporary world, a contradiction that has led to three decades of crisis in Japanese society. Can Japan make the bold changes required to reverse its decline?

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Brill
• Seitenzahl: 276
• Erscheinungstermin: 21. Oktober 2021
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 238mm x 157mm x 20mm
• Gewicht: 518g
• ISBN-13: 9789004466517
• ISBN-10: 9004466517
• Artikelnr.: 62308129

Autorenporträt

Myles Carroll is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Core Research at Ochanomizu University, with a Ph.D. in Political Science (2020) from York University. He has published many articles on social reproduction and political economy in post-war Japan

Inhaltsangabe

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES 1. Introduction  Analytical approach  Outline of the argument  Outline of chapters 2. Lineages of Japanese political economy  Creative conservatism and the developmental state: Japan’s post-war boom  Institutional approaches to the study of Japanese politics  The long decline: Theorizing crisis in Heisei Japan  The welfare state and social reproduction in post-war Japan  Conclusion 3. Towards a Gramscian understanding of Japanese political economy  Historical materialist methodology  Hegemony  Hegemony and hegemonic order  Social reproduction  Conditions for hegemonic order  Historic bloc  Explaining change: Conjunctural and organic  Organic crisis  World order, forms of state, social forces  Relations of force  Caesarism, passive revolution and trasformismo  Political ecology  Towards a Gramscian feminist approach to the Japanese post-war order  Conclusion 4. The post-war hegemonic order  The post-war hegemonic order  Conditions of post-war hegemonic order   Geopolitics: The Yoshida Doctrine and the US-Japan Security Treaty (Anpo)   Global political economy: The Bretton Woods System   The electoral and party system: The rise of LDP dominance   The state form: The rise of bureaucracy-driven governance   Production and capital: Japanese developmentalism and the keiretsu   Production and labour: Enterprise unionism and lifetime employment   Production and the petit bourgeoisie: Clientelism and the old middle class   Gender and the family: Extended families and the gender division of labour   Demography and welfare: Young society, small welfare state   Nation and ideology: The pacifist nationalism of the post-war era   Environment and national resources: Cheap oil  The post-war Japanese historic bloc  Conclusion 5. Contradictions and transitions of the Sh
wa era  Structural changes to world order   The Nixon shocks   The oil shocks   American trade frictions and the Plaza Accord  Structural demographic changes   The beginning of an aging society   The decline of extended families   The rise of women in the workforce  Political changes  Institutional changes   The heyday of the k
enkai   The rise of factions and the PARC   Institutional changes and continuities in Japanese business relations   Lifetime employment and the dual system   Clientelism and the construction state  Implications of these changes for hegemonic order   Economic implications   Political implications   Social implications  Conclusion 6. The organic crisis of the Heisei era  Historical background to the crisis   1989-1993: Two electoral shocks   1993-1996: Coalition governments, political reform   1996-2001: LDP’s return to power, administrative and financial reform   2001-2006: Rise of Koizumi, postal privatization   2006-2009: LDP impasse   2009-2012: Rise and fall of the DPJ  Conditions of the crisis   Geopolitics: Security Alliance in a post-Cold War world   Global political economy: Japan in a global neoliberal era   The electoral and party system: Crisis, reform, and the end of LDP rule   The state form: Institutional decay and administrative reform   Production and capital: The Americanization of Japanese capitalism?   Production and labour: Deregulation and the rise of the working poor   Production and the petit bourgeoisie: End of the pork-barrel system?   Gender and the family: The end of the male breadwinner model and sh
shika   Demography and welfare: The rise of the ‘pension state’   Nation and ideology: ‘Normal country’ or tan’itsu minzoku?   Political ecology: Climate change, the nuclear turn and 3/11  Implications of the crisis   Summary of the economic accumulation crisis   Summary of the political legitimation crisis   Summary of the social reproduction crisis  Conclusion 7. Caesarism, passive revolution and the return of the LDP under Abe  Abe’s political comeback  Breaking the deadlock: The Caesarism of “Abenomics”   Breaking the deadlock through expansionary Keynesian policy   Breaking the deadlock through neoliberal economic reform   Breaking the deadlock through welfare state expansion   Implications of Caesarism under Abe  The real Abe? Passive revolution, militarism and soft authoritarianism   Asserting control over the LDP   Passive revolution in administrative reform   Passive revolution in domestic security policy   Abe’s passive revolution  Consequences of Abe’s reign for the hegemonic order   Capital accumulation   Political legitimation   Social reproduction  Conclusion 8. Whither post-Abe Japan? Four scenarios for the future  The neo-conservative option   Overview   Relations of force behind neo-conservatism   The neo-conservative solution to organic crisis   Challenges and contradictions of neo-conservatism  The neo-liberal path   Overview   Relations of force behind neo-liberalism   The neo-liberal solution to organic crisis   Challenges and contradictions of neo-liberalism  Back to the future? Neo-communitarianism   Overview   Relations of force behind neo-liberalism   The neo-liberal solution to organic crisis   Challenges and contradictions of neo-liberalism  Counter-hegemony and a democratic socialist future   Overview   Relations of force behind democratic socialism   The democratic socialist solution to organic crisis   Challenges and contradictions of democratic socialism  Conclusion 9. Conclusion  Contradictions for hegemonic order: Political legitimation  Contradictions for hegemonic order: Capital accumulation  Contradictions for hegemonic order: Social reproduction  Overarching theoretical implications of the argument BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX