Protecting the Weak in East Asia (Routledge Contemporary Asia Series)

This book investigates public claims for the protection of weak groups and interests in Japan and China from the nineteenth century to the present day. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it engages with ongoing global debates relevant to both Western and non-Western societies whilst also providing an historically informed analysis of contemporary issues.

Using case studies on disaster victims, employee well-being, cultural heritage and animal welfare, this book analytically distinguishes between framing, mobilisation and institutionalisation processes. It examines these processes at the intersections of international and domestic spheres and, in doing so, demonstrates how drives for protection are formulated, contested and played out in practice. Ultimately however, this book argues that claims for protection do not necessarily translate into effective measures, but may in fact entail ambiguous or negative outcomes for the protected ‘weak’.

Protecting the Weak in East Asia makes a significant contribution to the empirical and theoretical research into the transformation of East Asian societies. As such, it will appeal to students and scholars of Asian history, Asian culture and society and East Asian Studies more broadly.

Iwo Amelung is Professor of Chinese Studies at Goethe-University Frankfurt/Main, Germany.

Moritz Bälz holds the Chair of Japanese Law and its Cultural Foundations at the Goethe University Frankfurt/Main, Germany.

Heike Holbig is Professor of Political Science at Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main and a senior research fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg, Germany.

Matthias Schumann is a postdoctoral research fellow at the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities "Fate, Freedom and Prognostication" at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.

Cornelia Storz is Professor of Economic Institutions, Innovation and East Asian Development at the Goethe University Frankfurt/Main, Germany.