Japan Viewed from Interdisciplinary Perspectives
History and Prospects
Contributions by Bruce Cumings University of Chicago; au, Karl Gustafsson, Steven Heine, Toru Oga, Yuki Ooi, Nissim Otmazgin, John Paden, Juha Saunavaara, Mayako Shimamoto, Judith Snodgrass, Marie Söderberg, Yoneyuki Sugita, Victor Teo, Marie Thorsten, Christopher Weiss Edited by Yoneyuki Sugita
Publication date:
29 October 2015Length of book:
314 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksDimensions:
237x157mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781498500227
The growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the Asia-Pacific region greatly surpasses the world average. When the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is better realized, then the world’s largest free trade zone will be firmly established. It seems that this region has a very rosy outlook indeed; however, this region also faces a large number of serious problems such as: atomic energy in Japan, conflicts about East Asian regional integration, the decline of the Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA), and the TPP’s possible impact on the Japanese universal health insurance system. We now face a possible Sino-Japanese military conflict concerning the Senkaku Islands (or Diaoyutai Islands). In short, the Asia-Pacific region has both a rosy future and the potential influence from unstable and dangerous elements at work within the region at present. The main purpose of this book is to analyze historical development, whilst looking at the contemporary situation of Japan from interdisciplinary perspectives. This book asks three major questions: (1) Is this really globalization? (2) What are Japan’s relations with other Asian countries? (3) Do U.S.-Japan relations still matter?
Fourteen leading scholars in their fields answer these questions from interdisciplinary perspectives.
Fourteen leading scholars in their fields answer these questions from interdisciplinary perspectives.
This [is an] eminently readable collection. . . .The introduction and the fourteen chapters are of a consistently high quality and Sugita should be complimented for bringing together in one volume such a high level of scholarship. . . .Written clearly, of a high standard, mixing empirical and analytical parts, the individual chapters and the volume as a whole are to be very welcomed. Readers from a variety of academic disciplines and interested parties should benefit from it greatly.