Japan's Private Spheres: Autonomy in Japanese History, 1600-1930 explores the genesis and historical development of autonomy and its evolving relationship with public authority in early modern and modern Japan.

The sports world’s attention was focused on Japan for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The years-long buildup to and aftermath of the games occurred in the midst of the global pandemic, which delayed the event until 2021. Given all of this, there is perhaps no better time to delve into an often overlooked but critical facet of sport in Japan: religion. Religion has long been a part of the Japanese sport tradition—from Shugendō practitioners offering sumo bouts to the gods to soccer players of all ages praying for success at Shintō shrines; from the use of meditation and ritual in martial arts to gain focus or superhuman abilities to religious organizations sponsoring sporting events and teams and school sports clubs. Religion and Sport in Japan brings together historians and sport and religious studies specialists from Japan, the US, and Europe to address sport’s ties to corporate and national identity, politics, environmentalism, ritual, and sacred space. Major themes discussed include the spiritual geographies of sport, sport as invented tradition, technologies of self, material culture, and civil religion. The chapters are written so that sport historians with no background in the study of Japan or religious studies scholars who have never before examined the world of sport will find the material accessible. To provide further grounding for non-field specialists, the volume begins with two background chapters that introduce sport studies in Japan and the study of religion and sport.

As Japan moved from the devastation of 1945 to the economic security that survived even the boom and bust of the 1980s and 1990s, its literature came to embrace new subjects and styles and to reflect on the nation's changing relationship to other Asian countries and to the West. This volume will help instructors introduce students to novels, short stories, and manga that confront postwar Japanese experiences, including the suffering caused by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the echoes of Japan's colonialism and imperialism, new ways of thinking about Japanese identity and about minorities such as the zainichi Koreans, changes in family structures, and environmental disasters. Essays provide context for understanding the particularity of postwar Japanese literature, its place in world literature, and its connections to the Japanese past.

The main emphasis of this book is upon political, social and economic developments, as conditioned by Japan's interaction with the outside world, the advance of industrialisation and the emergence of the Japanese nation state. Unlike previous textbooks on the history of modern Japan, Janet Hunter's book adopts a thematic approach which makes the period much more accessible for readers who wish to pursue their particular interests throughout the period. Moreover, it will also establish a greater awareness of the cultural and institutional continuities which are crucial to any proper understanding of modern Japan.

This is the first work to deal comprehensively with the historical and physical aspects of the Nagaoka palace and capital, which were constructed in the eighth century at the order of Kanmu Tennō, but abruptly abandoned after only ten years. New research and the information yielded by decades of excavation made possible this fresh reassessment of conventional theories of the construction and layout of Nagaoka, as well as the life and reign of its founder. It also examines the motivations behind Nagaoka's establishment and abandonment within the context of Kanmu's reign and personal convictions. In broader terms, this volume deals with the process of capital building in late eighth-century Japan, and the links between the Nara and Heian capitals.

Why is it important to study general social attitudes? To compare social attitudes across nations? To conduct such research longitudinally? The answers reveal the significance of such social research under unprecedented globalization, which creates imperatives for mutual international understanding. Though principally focused on Japanese social attitudes, these attitudes must be compared across nations and time, one means being cross-national attitude surveys, encompassing special methodologies and data analytic techniques. In 1953, the Institute of Statistical Mathematics began nationwide, longitudinal surveys of the Japanese way of thinking. All of the work described in this book stems from this research. This book is intended as a learning tool for those engaged in or contemplating social scientific research. At both national and international levels, survey and analytic methodologies are explored, explicated and applied to real world data. This publication has also been published in hardback (no longer available ISBN 90 04 11853 5).

The fate of local places increasingly rests on their capability to capitalize on their highly specific local cultural resources. "Cultural Commodities in Japanese Rural Revitalization: Tsugaru Nuri Lacquerware and Tsugaru Shamisen" examines the dynamics of this reality for the Tsugaru District of the Aomori Prefecture, Japan, and its two dominant cultural commodities, a lacquerware and a musical performance. Organized on the basis of policy, production and consumption, the research points to historical trajectory and a combinative conceptual-operational space as the means of identifying cultural and economic potential for a cultural commodity. This analytical approach provides both for assessing the local consciousness and identifying informed policy and industry management for the commodity, making it possible to realize its potential in local revitaliszation.

The nation state as we know it is a mere four or five hundred years old. Remarkably, a central government with vast territorial control emerged in Japan at around the same time as it did in Europe, through the process of mobilizing fiscal resources and manpower for bloody wars between the 16th and 17th centuries. This book, which brings Japan's case into conversation with the history of state building in Europe, points to similar factors that were present in both places: population growth eroded clientelistic relationships between farmers and estate holders, creating conditions for intense competition over territory; and in the ensuing instability and violence, farmers were driven to make Hobbesian bargains of taxes in exchange for physical security.

Shows how Japanese anxiety about overpopulation was used to justify expansion, blurring lines between migration and settler colonialism. This title is also available as Open Access.

Japan's impact on the modern world has been enormous. It occupies just one 300th of the planet's land area, yet came to wield one sixth of the world's economic power. Just 150 years ago it was an obscure land of paddy fields and feudal despots. Within 50 years it became a major imperial power – it's so-called 'First Miracle'. After defeat in the Second World War, when Japan came close to annihilation, within 25 years it recovered remarkably to become the world's third biggest economy – it's 'Second Miracle'. It is now not only an economic superpower, but also a technological and cultural superpower. True miracles have no explanation: Japan's 'miracles' do. The nation's success lies in deeply ingrained historical values, such as a pragmatic determination to succeed. The world can learn much from Japan, and its story is told in these pages. Covering the full sweep of Japanese history, from ancient to contemporary, this book explores Japan's enormous impact on the modern world, and how vital it is to examine the past and culture of the country in order to full understand its achievements and responses. Now in its third edition, this book is usefully updated and revised.