Instructor: Margarita Estevez-Abe
Office: 1474 Social Sciences Bldg.
(Office Hours to be announced)
E-mail: estevez@polisci.umn.edu
NOTE: Class Room Change to Social Sciences 1450
This course explores the success and the current crisis of the Japanese economic and political systems. Among the questions this course addresses: What factors enabled Japan to become the first non-Western economic power? What were the costs and benefits to the Japanese people of this success? How has the rise and (temporary?) decline of Japan affected the US?
Recommended Books for Those of You Who Want to Know More:
T.J.Pempel, Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy.
Andrew Gordon (ed.), Postwar Japan as History.
Gary Allinson and Yasunori Sone (eds.), Political Dynamics in Contemporary Japan.
Mark Ramseyer and Frances Rosenbluth, The Japanese Political Marketplace.
Kozo Yamamura and Yasukichi Yasuba (eds.), The Political Economy of Japan, vol.1.
Takashi Inoguchi and Daniel Okimoto (eds.), The Political Economy of Japan, vol.2.
Shumpei Kumon and Henry Rosovsky (eds.), The Political Economy of Japan, vol.3.
*All these books can be purchased from www.amazon.com.
Class time: 50% lecture, 30% discussion, 15% student presentation, 5% films
Work load: 100 pages of reading per week, 2 quizzes, 1 paper and 1 presentation.
Grade: 20% for each quiz (40%), 10% class participation, 20% class assignment, and 30% class paper.
Introduction: Japan as an Intellectual Puzzle (Sep 7)
Topic 1: Japan's "Forced" Coming Out (Sep 9-14)
Peter Duus, The Rise of Modern Japan, 55-90.
Yukichi Fukuzawa, The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa, 104-123, 141-157, 166-177.
Topic 2: Modernization & Westernization from Above (Sep 16-21)
Eiko Ikegami, The Taming of the Samurai, selections.
Elenor Westney, Imitation and Innovation, 9-32, 100-145.
Sheldon Garon, Molding Japanese Minds, 60-114.
Topic 3: Industrialization, State and the War (Sep 23-28)
Peter Duus, The Rise of Modern Japan, 173-188.
Richard Samuels, Rich Nation Strong Army, 79-107.
Coleen Dunlavy, "Political structure, state policy, and industrial change: early railroad policy in the United States and Prussia" in Steinmo, Thelen and Longstreth eds. Structuring Politics, 114-140.
Topic 4: Democratization from Above: The US Occupation of Japan (Sep 30, Oct 5-7)
Susan Pharr, "The Politics of Women's Rights" in Ward and Sakamoto, Democratizing Japan,
221-248.
Peter Duus, The Rise of Modern Japan, 238-254.
Chalmers Johnson, "The 1955 System and the American Connection," JPRI Working Paper #11.
Ian Buruma, The Wages of Guilt, 31-67, 177-201.
(Oct 5) Documentary Film on US Occupation of Japan
(Oct 7) Special discussion session led by student discussion leaders. Detailed instructions will be given in class.
Topic 5: Economic Reconstruction and the Economic Miracle (Oct 12-14)
Chalmers Johnson, The MITI and the 3-34.
Eisuke Sakakibara and Yukio Noguchi, "Organization for Economic Reconstruction" in Inside the Japanese System, 43-56.
Kazuhiko Nagato, "The Japan-United States Savings-rate Gap," Inside the Japanese System, 64-70.
Steven Reed, Making Common Sense of Japan, chapter 5.
Topic 6: Is Japanese Capitalism Unique? (Oct 19-21)
Michio Morishima, "Confucianism as a Basis for Capitalism" in Inside the Japanese System, 36-38.
Ronald Dore, "Goodwill and the Spirit of Market Capitalism" in Inside the Japanese System, 90-99.
Steven Reed, Making Common Sense of Japan, chapter 4.
Andrew Gordon, "Contests for the Workplace," in Postwar Japan as History, 373-394.
Rodney Clark, "Industrial Groups" in Inside the Japanese System, 70-79.
Hiroshi Okumura, "The Closed Nature of Japanese Intercoporate Relations" in Inside the Japanese System, 81-83.
Topic 7: Is Japanese Democracy Culturally Different? (Oct 26-28)
Daniel Okimoto, Inside the Japanese System, 175-184.
T.J. Pempel, "Uncommon Democracies: The One-Party Dominant Regimes" in Uncommon Democracies, 1-32.
Ramseyer and Rosenbluth, The Japanese Political Marketplace, pp.16-37, 59-79.
Frank Schwartz, "Of Fairy Cloaks and Familiar Talks: The Politics of Consultation" in Political Dynamics in Contemporary Japan, 217-232.
Topic 8: Who Benefits and Who Loses? (Oct 30-Nov 2)
Glen Fukushima, "Corporate Power" Ishida Takeshi and Ellis Krauss eds., Democracy in Japan
(1989), pp.255-79.
Michael W. Donnelly, "Setting the Price of Rice: A Study in Political Decision-making" in
T.J.Pempel ed., Policymaking in Contemporary Japan (1977), pp. 143-200.
John Longworth, Beef in Japan, pp.54-78.
Kent Calder, Crisis and Compensation, 312-327, 332-348.
Tiana Norgren, "The Politics of Reproduction in Postwar Japan,"1-18.
Mid-term (Nov 4)
Topic 9: Illiberal Democracy? (Nov 9 -11-16)
Ramseyer and Rosenbluth, The Japanese Political Marketplace (1993), 142-181.
Margaret McKean, "Pollution and Policymaking" in Policymaking in Contemporary Japan, pp.201-238.
Frank Upham, "Unplaced Persons and Movements for Place" in Postwar Japan as History, 325-
346.
Newspaper clippings from the Aum Shinrikyo, and various corporate scandal cases.
(Nov 11) Movie: Juzo Itami's "Minbo."
(Nov 16) Special discussion session
Topic 10: Back to Enemy: Japan as a New Threat to the US (Nov 18-23)
"The Maekawa Report" in Inside the Japanese System, 252-256.
Aurelia George Mulgan, "Accessing the Japanese Agricultural Market," JPRI Critique, 2.
Frank Upham, "The SII and the Japanese Retail Industry" in National Diversity and Global Capitalism, 263-297.
Leonard Schoppa, Bargaining with Japan, 18-24, 49-116.
Samuel Huntington, "Clash of Civilizations."
Clips from Michael Creighton's Rising Sun.
(Nov 25 Thanksgiving No Class)
Topic 11: The Rise and Decline of the Japanese Economic Power (Nov 30)
Peter Hartcher, The Ministry, 60-110
Richard Katz, "Mainframe Economics in a PC World" in 3-26, "Japan's Deformed Dual Economy" 29-54 in Japan: The System that Soured.
Dec 2 Quiz
Topic 12: Is Japan Changing? (Dec 7-9)
T.J. Pempel, Regime Shift, 169-219.
Mike Mochizuki, Japan: Domestic Change and Foreign Policy, Chapter Three, pp25-46.
Margarita Estevez-Abe, "Political Women in Japan: A Case Study of the Seikatsusha Network Movement."
(Dec 9) Special Discussion Session
Dec 14 Class paper due-- No Class
