The Left in the Shaping of Japanese Democracy (RoutledgeCurzon/Leiden Series on Modern East Asian Politics & History) - Softcover

Kersten, Rikki

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415334357 ISBN 13: 9780415334358

Publisher: Routledge, 2006

Synopsis

Leftist thought and activism stands as a defining force in the articulation of political culture and policy in modern Japan. Operating from the periphery of formal political power for the most part, the Japanese Left has had an impact that extends far beyond its limited success at the ballot box. The essays that compose this Oxford Festschrift range over a wide set of themes including the tragic careers of two prewar left-wing martyrs (Goto-Jones); Hisashi Asô, the great Socialist apostate (Kersten); the Left’s evasion of constitutional sovereignty (Williams); the rise and fall of Nikkyô-sô (Aspinall); the Left’s impact on privatization and bureaucratic reform (Nakano); the demise of parliamentary Socialism (Hyde); the Left’s recent embrace of free market principles (Schoppa); critical Japan studies and American empire since ‘9.11’ (Williams); and history’s final judgment on the fate of this great political movement (Banno).

About this title

About the Author:

Rikki Kersten is Professor of Modern Japan Studies at Leiden University, the

Netherlands. She is the editor of our Routledge/Leiden Series in Modern

East Asian History and Politics.

David Williams, one of Europe’s leading thinkers on modern Japan, is the

author of Japan: Beyond the End of History, Japan and the Enemies of Open

Political Science and Defending Japan’s Pacific War, all published by

Routledge.

Review:

"...intellectual historians of prewar Japan will find solid scholarship and food for thought." -- Patricia G. Steinhoff, Journal of Japanese Studies, V. 34, No. 1, 2008

"A festschrift offered to Oxford don J.A.A Stockwin,pioneering British Japanologist and specialist on the left,this edited collection likewise focuses upon left wing themes in Japanese modern history.

The abruptness with which the political map of Japan has been redrawn in very recent years has obviously  rendered conventional texts irrelevant.For its iconclastic style,its overlapping historically grounded essays and "up to date-ness" ,this book is highly recommended to students and teachers of Japanese politics alike."--Geoffrey C.Gunn,International Annual Bibliography of Festschriften

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0415334357
• ISBN 13: 9780415334358
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 204