Policy & Politics Japan

You might click away to other link when you check the year of publication, 1981 (actually 1982). Yep. This book couldn¡¯t include later developments in Japanese researches and real life events. But I don¡¯t think this limitation shatters down the whole value of the book. I thought in that way when I should read this book for a graduate class. But when I opened then book, my presumption proved wrong. This book overviews in skillful manner the issues raised on the public sphere of postwar Japan upto ¡®70s, ranging from economic policy, labor-management relations, social welfare, higher education, environmental protection, to administrative reform. I think the accounts of Pempel in this book still are valid. There is not much titles which effectively overview postwar Japan as a whole. Each chapter is structured into 4 sections:Context: this section offers the reader a historical standpoint from prewar period to understand the overall trend of each issue. Agenda: this section deals with real issues raised in the public sphere.Process: this section sketches out what was the political process to tackle the issues.Consequences:These 4 sections provide the clear picture of each area of agenda in the cumulative spiral way. But the real beauty is the part of ¡®Readings¡¯ in each chapter. This part contains the document from real actors from LDP, JSP, labor unions, government agencies, and economic federations like Keidanren. Readings part occupies almost half of each chapter. I haven¡¯t seen any books on Japan structured in this way.