Description
Book SynopsisIn The Making of Modern Japan, Myles Carroll offers a sweeping account of post-war Japanese political economy, exploring the transition from the post-war boom to the crisis of today and the connections between these seemingly discrete periods. Carroll explores the multifarious international and domestic political, economic, social and cultural conditions that fortified Japan’s post-war hegemonic order and enabled decades of prosperity and stability. Yet since the 1990s, a host of political, economic, social and cultural changes has left this same hegemonic order out of step with the realities of the contemporary world, a contradiction that has led to three decades of crisis in Japanese society. Can Japan make the bold changes required to reverse its decline?
Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTS LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES 1. Introduction Analytical approach Outline of the argument Outline of chapters 2. Lineages of Japanese political economy Creative conservatism and the developmental state: Japan’s post-war boom Institutional approaches to the study of Japanese politics The long decline: Theorizing crisis in Heisei Japan The welfare state and social reproduction in post-war Japan Conclusion 3. Towards a Gramscian understanding of Japanese political economy Historical materialist methodology Hegemony Hegemony and hegemonic order Social reproduction Conditions for hegemonic order Historic bloc Explaining change: Conjunctural and organic Organic crisis World order, forms of state, social forces Relations of force Caesarism, passive revolution and trasformismo Political ecology Towards a Gramscian feminist approach to the Japanese post-war order Conclusion 4. The post-war hegemonic order The post-war hegemonic order Conditions of post-war hegemonic order Geopolitics: The Yoshida Doctrine and the US-Japan Security Treaty (Anpo) Global political economy: The Bretton Woods System The electoral and party system: The rise of LDP dominance The state form: The rise of bureaucracy-driven governance Production and capital: Japanese developmentalism and the keiretsu Production and labour: Enterprise unionism and lifetime employment Production and the petit bourgeoisie: Clientelism and the old middle class Gender and the family: Extended families and the gender division of labour Demography and welfare: Young society, small welfare state Nation and ideology: The pacifist nationalism of the post-war era Environment and national resources: Cheap oil The post-war Japanese historic bloc Conclusion 5. Contradictions and transitions of the Shōwa era Structural changes to world order The Nixon shocks The oil shocks American trade frictions and the Plaza Accord Structural demographic changes The beginning of an aging society The decline of extended families The rise of women in the workforce Political changes Institutional changes The heyday of the kōenkai The rise of factions and the PARC Institutional changes and continuities in Japanese business relations Lifetime employment and the dual system Clientelism and the construction state Implications of these changes for hegemonic order Economic implications Political implications Social implications Conclusion 6. The organic crisis of the Heisei era Historical background to the crisis 1989-1993: Two electoral shocks 1993-1996: Coalition governments, political reform 1996-2001: LDP’s return to power, administrative and financial reform 2001-2006: Rise of Koizumi, postal privatization 2006-2009: LDP impasse 2009-2012: Rise and fall of the DPJ Conditions of the crisis Geopolitics: Security Alliance in a post-Cold War world Global political economy: Japan in a global neoliberal era The electoral and party system: Crisis, reform, and the end of LDP rule The state form: Institutional decay and administrative reform Production and capital: The Americanization of Japanese capitalism? Production and labour: Deregulation and the rise of the working poor Production and the petit bourgeoisie: End of the pork-barrel system? Gender and the family: The end of the male breadwinner model and shōshika Demography and welfare: The rise of the ‘pension state’ Nation and ideology: ‘Normal country’ or tan’itsu minzoku? Political ecology: Climate change, the nuclear turn and 3/11 Implications of the crisis Summary of the economic accumulation crisis Summary of the political legitimation crisis Summary of the social reproduction crisis Conclusion 7. Caesarism, passive revolution and the return of the LDP under Abe Abe’s political comeback Breaking the deadlock: The Caesarism of “Abenomics” Breaking the deadlock through expansionary Keynesian policy Breaking the deadlock through neoliberal economic reform Breaking the deadlock through welfare state expansion Implications of Caesarism under Abe The real Abe? Passive revolution, militarism and soft authoritarianism Asserting control over the LDP Passive revolution in administrative reform Passive revolution in domestic security policy Abe’s passive revolution Consequences of Abe’s reign for the hegemonic order Capital accumulation Political legitimation Social reproduction Conclusion 8. Whither post-Abe Japan? Four scenarios for the future The neo-conservative option Overview Relations of force behind neo-conservatism The neo-conservative solution to organic crisis Challenges and contradictions of neo-conservatism The neo-liberal path Overview Relations of force behind neo-liberalism The neo-liberal solution to organic crisis Challenges and contradictions of neo-liberalism Back to the future? Neo-communitarianism Overview Relations of force behind neo-liberalism The neo-liberal solution to organic crisis Challenges and contradictions of neo-liberalism Counter-hegemony and a democratic socialist future Overview Relations of force behind democratic socialism The democratic socialist solution to organic crisis Challenges and contradictions of democratic socialism Conclusion 9. Conclusion Contradictions for hegemonic order: Political legitimation Contradictions for hegemonic order: Capital accumulation Contradictions for hegemonic order: Social reproduction Overarching theoretical implications of the argument BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX
