Bücher der Reihe Routledge Contemporary Japan Series

Mental health, including widespread depression and a very high suicide rate, is a major problem in Japan. At the same time, the mental health system in Japan has historically been more restrictive than elsewhere in the world. This book looks at the challenges of mental illness in Japan, including deficiencies in health care such as the abuse of patients and the institutionalisation of long term patients in mental hospitals.

Comparing successful and unsuccessful reform drives by Japanese leaders, this work argues that the quality of political leadership is the crucial determinant of whether parties in positions of dominance, pass or reject policies.

The contributors to this volume elaborate how manga and by extension graphic art rewrites, reinvents and re-imagines the historicity and dialectic of bygone epochs in postwar/contemporary Japan.

The image of the shinkansen - or 'bullet train' - passing Mount Fuji is one of the renowned images of modern Japan. This title provides an account of the history of the shinkansen, from its planning during the Pacific War, to its launch in 1964 and subsequent development. It analyzes the reasons behind the bullet train's success.

How does the conception of modern Japan as a culture of translation affect our understanding of Japanese modernity and its relation to the East/West divide? And how does the example of a distinctly East Asian tradition of translation affect our understanding of translation itself? This book addresses these questions.

Examines and analyses the phenomenon of 'Japan-bashing', from its invention and popularisation in the United States in the late 1970s to the emergence of other national variants, including in Australia and Japan, to its gradual decline in the late 1990s.

Analyses how linguistic diversity in Japan, and indeed recognition of this phenomenon, presents a wide range of sociolinguistic challenges and opportunities in fundamental institutions such as schools, in cultural patterns and in social behaviours and attitudes.

Explores the contemporary state of marriage in Japanese society. Setting out the different perceptions and expectations of marriage in Japan, this book discusses how economic issues and the family impact on marital behaviour.

Examines the history of the relationship between male homosexuality and conceptions of manliness in post-war Japan. This book provides an account of the formative years of the homo magazine genre in the 1970s, and explores its evolution in subsequent years, analyzing key issues including homophobia; gay liberation; and male-male sex.

Over the last 70 years, Japanese Studies scholarship has gone through several dominant paradigms, from 'demystifying the Japanese', to analysis of Japanese economic strength, to discussion of global interest in Japanese popular culture. This book assesses this literature, considering future directions for research into the 2020s and beyond.

The essays collected here theorize the relation of unconscious fantasy and perversion to discourses of nation, identity, and history in Japan. By reading a variety of cultural productions as symptomatic elaborations of unconscious and symbolic processes rather than as indexes to cultural truths, the authors combat the truisms of modernization theory and the seductive pull of culturalism.

Presents a survey of Japanese-Russian relations from the end of the Russo-Japanese War. Based on original research in Japanese and Russian sources, this book shows how the hopeful period of the late 1990s - when acrimonious relations between the two briefly ceased - was not in fact unique.

Drawing on theories of place, consumption and identity, this book details the evolution of the love hotel in urban Japan since the 1950s.

Looking at domestic politics, transnational diffusion, the state's relationship with civil society and societal actors, this book demonstrates how and why NGOs active in global issues have become more visible in Japan. It is suitable for postgraduate students and academics working in political science, international relations, and sociology.

Presents an analysis of one of the most pressing challenges facing Japan: population decline and ageing. This work argues that social ageing is a phenomenon that follows in the wake of industrialization, urbanization and social modernization, bringing about changes in values, institutions, social structures, and technology and culture.

Examines the history textbook controversy in Japan. This book sets the controversy in the context of debates about memory, and education, and in relation to evolving politics both within Japan, and in Japan's relations with its neighbours and former colonies and countries it invaded.

Explores the struggles within contemporary Japanese society to come to terms with Second World War history. Analyzing the variety of ways in which the Japanese people narrate, contest and interpret the past, this book also provides a contrast to the many orthodox statements about Japanese 'ignorance', amnesia' and 'denial' about the war.

Presents a compilation of case studies focusing on the decentralization in Japan. Aimed at the students of Urban, Asian and Japanese Studies, this book includes small-scale development in the fields such as citizen participation (machizukuri), urban form and architecture, disaster prevention and conservation of monuments.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of EU-Japan relations from 1970 to the present. It charts developments over the period, analyses key specific areas of importance to the relationship, and concludes by assessing how the relationship is likely to develop going forward. Throughout, the book discusses the factors on both sides which motivate the relationship, including Japan¿s concern to secure markets for its advanced industrial products, and the factors motivating current negotiations for a deeper and more comprehensive economic and cooperative partnership.

Tackles the innovative and sometimes controversial subject of the policies of adoption agencies in Japan. This book analyzes how different agency strategies for finding homes for hard to place children are related to different assumptions about the psychology and reasoning of prospective parents. It is useful for professionals in the field.

The multiple and diverse forces of globalization have, indeed, affected Japan significantly over the past decades. But so, it must be said, has Japan influenced a variety of critical global developments - globalization is not a one-way street, particularly for a nation as economically influential and technologically advanced as Japan. The chapters in this collection examine the impact of globalization on Japan and the impact of Japan on the forces of globalization from the various disciplinary perspectives of business, the economy, politics, technology, culture and society. They also explain the manner in which the nation has responded to the economic and cultural liberalization that has been such a profound force for change around the globe.

This book examines five features of Japan¿s `Lost Decades¿: the speed of the economic decline in Japan compared to Japan¿s earlier global prowess; a rapidly declining population; considerable political instability and failed reform attempts; shifting balances of power in the region and changing relations with Asian neighbouring nations; and the lingering legacy of World War Two. To discuss the rebuilding of Japan, the authors argue that it is first essential to critically examine Japan¿s `Lost Decades¿ and this book offers a comprehensive overview of Japan¿s recent 20 years of crisis. The book reveals that the `Lost Decades¿ is not an issue unique to the Japanese context but has global relevance, and its study can provide important insights into challenges being faced in other mature economies. With chapters written by some of the world¿s leading Japan specialists and chapters focusing on a variety of disciplines, this book will be of interest to students and scholars in the areas of Japan studies, Politics, International Relations, Security Studies, Government Policy and History.