Introduction to Japanese Society and Politics - Sophia University ...

Aspects of Japanese Society I (AIKOM Program)/ 公 共 政 策 (Winter 2011)
Tuesdays 13:00-14:30
Instructor: Rieko Kage
e-mail: kage@waka.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Office hours: by appointment
Course Description
This course addresses major political and social issues in contemporary Japan.
Students will be exposed to the main academic and policy debates over such issues as:
inequality; fertility and aging; immigration; civil society; the fall of the LDP; and the
March 11 th disaster.
Requirements
The class will be run as a seminar and students are expected to participate actively in
class discussion. Students are expected to have read the readings for the week prior to
each class meeting. Every week, one student will be responsible for summarizing the
week’s readings and for raising issues for discussion. Students should pay particular
attention to where the different authors for the week agree and/or disagree with each
other, and for what reasons. Students are also expected to write a final paper on one of
the topics covered during the course of the semester (inequality, low fertility, disaster
recovery, civil society, and the fall of the LDP from power). Details on the paper are
below.
Evaluation
Evaluation for the course will consist of attendance (20%), class participation (50%),
and final paper (30%).
Schedule
October 11 th
October 18 th:
Introduction and Overview
Inequality in Japan
Toshiaki Tachibanaki (2006), “Inequality and Poverty in Japan,” Japanese Economic
Review, vol. 57, no. 1: 1-27.
Fumio Ohtake (2006), “Straight Thinking about the Income Gap,” Japan Echo, vol. 33,
no. 3.
October 25 th :
Inequality in Japan, continued
Shogo Takekawa (2010), “Liberal Preferences and Conservative Policies: The
Puzzling Size of Japan’s Welfare State,” Social Science Japan Journal, vol. 13, no.1:
53-67.
Kazuo Koike (2009), “The Myth of Seniority Wages,” Japan Echo, vol. 36, no. 5.

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Torbern Iversen and Anne Wren (1998), “Equality, Employment, and Budgetary
Restraint: The Trilemma of the Service Economy,” World Politics, vol. 50, no. 4:
507-546.
November 1 st : Low Fertility
Sawako Shirahase (2007), “Women’s Economic Status and Fertility: Japan in
Cross-National Perspective,” in Frances M. Rosenbluth, ed., The Political Economy of
Japan’s Low Fertility. Stanford: Stanford University Press, ch. 2.
Sawako Shirahase (2009), “Marriage as an Association of Social Classes in a Low
Fertility-Rate Society,” in Hiroshi Ishida and David H. Slater, Social Class in
Contemporary Japan: Structure, Sorting, and Strategies. New York: Routledge.
November 8 th :
Low Fertility and Aging in Comparative Context
Julia Lynch (2006), Age in the Welfare State: The Origins of Social Spending on
Pensioners, Workers, and Children. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ch. 1
and 2.
November 15 th :
The Japanese Youth
Yuji Genda (2007), “Jobless Youths and the NEET Problem in Japan,” Social Science
Japan Journal, vol. 10, no. 1: 23-40.
Yuki Honda (2008), “Focusing in on Japan’s ‘Youth Nationalism’,” Social Science
Japan Journal, vol. 10, no. 2: 281-286.
Mary C. Brinton (2009), “Social Class and Economic Life Chances in Post-Industrial
Japan: The ‘Lost Generation,’” in Hiroshi Ishida and David H. Slater, Social Class in
Contemporary Japan: Structure, Sorting, and Strategies. New York: Routledge.
November 22 nd : Immigration
Myungsoo Kim (2003), “Ethnic Stratification and Inter-Generational Differences in
Japan: A Comparative Study of Korean and Japanese Status Attainment,”
International Journal of Japanese Sociology, vol. 12, no. 1: 1-11.
Seung-mi Han (2004), “From the Communitarian Ideal to the Public Sphere: The
making of Foreigners’ Assemblies in Kawasaki City and Kanagawa Prefecture,” Social
Science Japan Journal, vol. 7, no. 1: 41-60.
Bumsoo Kim (2011), “Changes in the Socio-Economic Position of Zainichi Koreans:
An Historical Overview,” Social Science Japan Journal, vol. 14, no. 2: 233-245.
November 29 th :
Civil Society

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Makoto Iokibe (1999), “Japan’s Civil Society: A Historical Overview,” in Tadashi
Yamamoto, ed., Deciding the Public Good: Governance and Civil Society in Japan.
Tokyo: Japan Center for International Exchange: 51-96.
Yuko Kawato, Robert Pekkanen, and Hidehiro Yamamoto (2010), “State and Civil
Society in Japan,” in Alisa Gaunder, ed., Routledge Handbook of Japanese Politics.
New York: Routledge.
Susan Pharr (2003), “Conclusion: Targeting by an Activist State: Japan as a Civil
Society Model,” in Frank J. Schwartz and Susan J. Pharr, eds., The State of Civil Society
in Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
December 6 th : Civil Society (continued)
Steven K. Vogel (1999), “When Interests Are Not Preferences: The Cautionary Tale of
Japanese Consumers.” Comparative Politics vol. 31, no. 2: 187-207.
Kim Reimann (2003), “Building Civil Society from the Outside In? Japanese
International Development NGOs, the State, and International Norms,” in Frank J.
Schwartz and Susan J. Pharr, eds., The State of Civil Society in Japan. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Mary Alice Haddad (2007), “The Transformation of Japan’s Civil Society Landscape,”
Journal of East Asian Studies, vol. 7, no. 3: 413-437.
December 13 th : The Fall of the LDP
Christopher Hood (2010), “The Shinkansen’s Local Impact,” Social Science Japan
Journal, forthcoming.
Ellis S. Krauss and Robert Pekkanen (2010), “The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Liberal
Democratic Party,” Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 69, no. 1: 5-15.
Masaki Taniguchi, Hideaki Uenohara, and Shiro Sakaiya (2010), “Who Ended the
LDP’s Reign?” Japan Echo, vol. 37, no. 1.
December 20 th : Understanding the Disaster (1)
Stephanie E. Chang (2010), “Urban Disaster Recovery: A Measurement Framework
and its Application to the 1995 Kobe Earthquake,” Disasters, vol. 34, no. 2: 303-327.
Daniel P. Aldrich (2011), “Social, not Physical, Infrastructure: The Critical Role of
Civil Society after the 1923 Tokyo Earthquake,” Disasters, forthcoming.
January 17 th : Understanding the Disaster (2)

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Richard J. Samuels (1987), The Business of the Japanese State: Energy Markets in
Comparative and Historical Perspective. Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
Daniel P. Aldrich (2007), Site Fights: Divisive Facilities and Civil Society in Japan
and the West. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, ch. 5: 119-151.
Jacques E. C. Hymans (2011), “Veto Players, Nuclear Energy, and Nonproliferation:
Domestic Institutional Barriers to a Japanese Nuclear Bomb,” International Security,
vol. 36, no. 2: 154-189.
January 24 th
Wrap-up
Presentations:
Student presentations should be 20-30 minutes in length. Students should prepare a
1-2 page handout for the class that summarizes the argument and the main points in the
reading(s). In addition to summarizing the argument and the main points in the
readings, the student should offer a critique of the argument advanced in the article.
Do you find the argument convincing? Why or why not? To what extent does the
evidence offered by the author support the argument advanced in the paper? Any
additional insights from other courses, readings, anything that you know on the topic
from elsewhere are also welcome.
Paper
The paper should address one of the major topics covered in the course. It should ask:
on what issues do the authors covered in the course agree or disagree with each other?
Which argument do you find the most convincing, and why? The paper should be 4-5
pages in length (A4, double-spaced, 11 or 12 point font). You are also welcome to
conduct your own research on the subject or to discuss additional material that you have
read in other courses or on your own. Please e-mail the paper to the instructor at
kage@waka.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp by February 8 th , 2012, end of the day (no extensions).