
Japan is one of the world's wealthiest and most technologically advanced nations, and its rapid ascent to global power status after 1853 remains one of the most remarkable stories in modern world history. Yet it has not been an easy path; military catastrophe, political atrophy, and economic upheavals have made regular appearances from the feudal era to the present. Today, Japan is seen as a has-been with a sluggish economy, an aging population, dysfunctional politics, and a business landscape dominated by yesterday's champions. Though it is supposed to be America's strongest ally in the Asia-Pacific region, it has almost entirely disappeared from the American radar screen.In Japan and the Shackles of the Past, R. Taggart Murphy places the current troubles of Japan in a sweeping historical context, moving deftly from early feudal times to the modern age that began with the Meiji Restoration. Combining fascinating analyses of Japanese culture and society over the centuries with hard-headed accounts of Japan's numerous political regimes, Murphy not only reshapes our understanding of Japanese history, but of Japan's place in the contemporary world. He concedes that Japan has indeed been out of sight and out of mind in recent decades, but contends that this is already changing. Political and economic developments in Japan today risk upheaval in the pivotal arena of Northeast Asia, inviting comparisons with Europe on the eve of the First World War. America's half-completed effort to remake Japan in the late 1940s is unraveling, and the American foreign policy and defense establishment is directly culpable for what has happened. The one apparent exception to Japan's malaise is the vitality of its pop culture, but it's actually no exception at all; rather, it provides critical clues to what is going on now.With insights into everything from Japan's politics and economics to the texture of daily life, gender relations, the changing business landscape, and popular and high culture.
How does Japan's complex historical trajectory and its unresolved relationship with the past inform its current political and economic stagnation? R. Taggart Murphy, an expert in Japanese political economy, utilizes a comprehensive historical framework to analyze the nation's evolution from the feudal era through the Meiji Restoration to the present day. He argues that Japan's contemporary malaise is not an isolated phenomenon but a direct consequence of historical structural issues and the incomplete nature of post-WWII American intervention.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Experts and readers frequently note the analytical depth Murphy brings to the intersection of history and modern geopolitics. The text is recognized as a significant contribution for those seeking to understand the structural challenges facing contemporary Japan within the context of its historical development.
Page Count:
472
Publication Date:
2016-11-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190619589
ISBN-13:
9780190619589
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