Politics and Foreign Policy of Japan

POLITICS AND FOREIGN POLICY OF JAPAN

Autumn 2007

Mon & Wed 15:00-16:15

Prof. Yul Sohn

Office Hour: TueThu1:30-3pm

Or by Appointment

Course Description:

Japan isKorea’s important ally and rival -- at once our partner in preserving the security and economic order in East Asia and a source of vigorous economic competition. Japan is both a grave threat to, and an opportunity for the Korean industry. Either way, it is clearly vital that Koreans further their understanding of this nation. This course examines the interactions between politics, political institutions, and public policy, with a particular focus on how these dynamics are playing out in postwar Japan.

This course is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the emergence and consolidation of the "1955 system," a stable political and economic order that began with the establishment of the Liberal Democratic Party(LDP) in that year and ended with the split of its long-term rule in 1993. Much of the focus will be given to electoral and party politics, politics of economic growth and democratic practices in Japanese society. In the second part, our attention will be shifted to the post-1993 political and economic disorder that characterizes contemporary Japan. It explores how economic, social, and political changes disrupted the stable regime deeply rooted in social, cultural, and external contexts. The third and last part deals withJapan's foreign and security policies. It covers Japan’s foreign policy orientation, its bilateral relations with US, China, Korea, and multilateral diplomacy.

Reading Assignment

There is no designated textbook for the course. A course packet, collection of journal articles and book chapters, is available for purchase.

Evaluation and Grades

The course requires students to take two in-class open-book exams, each worth 30 percent of the final grade. In addition, students are required to submit 1-2 page reaction papers which should summarize the core points of the weekly readings and reflect your own evaluation. Papers are due at the beginning of the class. The final 40 percent of your grade will be based on reaction papers and class participation.

Class Rules:

1. Missed Classes: You should notify the instructor before the class if, for some reason, you will not be able to attend. Otherwise missed classes three times are disqualified.
2. Missed Tests: You should notify the instructor before the exam if, for some reason, you will not be able to make it. Permission will only be given in exceptional cases, and make-ups will be scheduled at the instructor’s convenience.
3. Late papers: The final grade on the paper will be docked one letter for each day it is late unless the delay be approved by the instructor (based on an exceptional reason) at least a week before the due date. For example, last minute computer problems are not an excuse.

WEEK 1: Introduction, Logistics and Historical Background

Required Reading:

Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan(London: OxfordUniversityPress 2003), Part 2 & 3.

Suggested Reading:

J.A.A. Stockwin, Governing Japan (Oxford: Blackwell 1999), pp. 10-22, 36-53.

John Dower, “The Useful War,” in idem Japan in War and Peace (NY: The New Press 1993), pp. 9-32.

丸山眞男, 『日本政治思想史硏究』(東京大學出版會, 1952), 第2章.

升味準之輔, 『日本政治史』東京大學出版會, 1988).

PART I: THE “1955 SYSTEM”

WEEK 2: Victory of LDP in Left-Right Conflict and the Formation of the “1955 System"

Required:

T. J. Pempel, Regime Shift (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998), pp. 81-110.

Masaru Kohno,Japan's Postwar Party Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 91-115.

Suggested:

Chalmers Johnson, "Tanaka Kakuei, Corruption, and the Advent of the Machine Politics in Japan," Journal of Japanese Studies (Winter 1986).

Gerald Curtis, The Japanese Way of Politics (NY: Columbia UniversityPress,1987).

升味準之輔, 「1955體制」『思想』(1964.6).

中村隆英, 『昭和史 II』(東洋經濟新報社 1993), chs. 1-3.

中野吉男, 「もはや戰後ではない」『文藝春秋』(1956.2).

佐藤誠三郞, 松崎哲久, 『自民黨政權』(中央公論社, 1986).

WEEK 3: External Contexts of the “1955 System"

Required:

John Dower, "Peace and Democracy in Two Systems," in Andrew Gordon ed., Postwar Japan as History(Berkeley: University of California Press 1993), pp. 3-32.

Bruce Cumings, "Japan's Position in the World System" in Postwar Japan as History, pp. 34-63.

Suggested:

北岡伸一, 『自民黨ー政權黨38年』(讀賣新聞社 1995).

渡辺昭夫 編, 『戰後日本の對外政策』(有斐閣 1985).

WEEK 4: National Holidays

WEEK 5: Politics of High-Speed Growth under the “1955 System"

Required:

Chalmers Johnson, “The Developmental State: Oddyssey of a Concept,” in Meredith Woo-Cumings ed.,The Developmental State (Ithaca: Cornell University Press 1999), pp. 32-60.

T.J. Pempel, “The Developmental Regime in a Chinging World Economy,” in The Developmental State, pp. 137-91.

Suggested:

Chalmers Johnson,MITI and the Japanese Miracle(Stanford: Stanford University Press 1982), esp. pp. 198-274.

Laura Hein, "Growth Versus Success: Japan's Economic Policy in Historical Perspective," Postwar Japan as History, pp. 99-122.

Pempel, Regime Shift, pp. 42-80.

Bai Gao, Economic Ideology and Japanese Industrial Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998).

Marie Anchordoguy, Reprogramming Japan (Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press, 2005).

Steven Vogel, Japan Remodeled (Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press 2006).

WEEK 6-7 Development of Machine Politics

Required:

Jacob Schlessinger, Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Postwar Political Machine (Stanford: Stanford University Press 1997), Part 1 & 2.

Suggested:

Frank Schwartz, "Amending Japan's Labor Constitution: Revision of the Labor Standards Act," Advice and Consent (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998): 116-163.

Norma Field, In the Realm of a Dying Emperor (NY: Vintage 1991).

Frank Upham, "Unplaced Persons and Movements for Place," Postwar Japanas History, pp. 325-346.

WEEK 8Exam-1(10/9)

PART II: THE DECLINE AND COLLAPSE OF THE “1955 SYSTEM”

WEEK 9: Changing Environments and Political Challenges

Required:

Jacob Schlessinger, Shadow Shoguns, Part 3 & 4.

Gerald Curtis, The Logic of Japanese Politics, pp. 25-64.

Suggested:

樋渡展洋、三浦まり 編『流動期の日本政治』(東京大學出版會 2002).

Gerald Curtis, The Logic of Japanese Politics, pp. 65-99.

T. J. Pempel, "Unbundling of Japan, Inc.", Journal of Japanese Studies 13-2(Summer 1987), pp. 271-306

Gary Cox, Michael Thies, and Frances Rosenbluth, "Electoral Reform and the Fateof Factions: The Case of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party," British Journal of Political Science 29:1 (1999), pp. 33-56.

WEEK 10: Koizumi Junichiro and21st Century Japan

Required:

T.J. Pempel, “A Decade of Political Torpor,” in Peter Katzenstein and Takashi Shiraishi eds., Beyond Japan: The Dynamics of East Asian Regionalism (Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press 2006).

TomohitoShinoda, "Koizumi's Top-Down Leadership in the Anti-Terrorism Legislation: The Impact of Political Institutional Changes," SAIS Review23:1 (Winter-Spring 2003): 19-34.

Suggested:

Leonard Schoppa, “The 2006 Koizumi Succession inHistorical Context,” mimeo.

Lonny Carlile, "The Politics of Administrative Reform," in Lonny Carlile and Mark Tilton, Is Japan Really Changing Its Ways? (Washington: Brookings Institution Press 1998), pp. 76-110.

Stephen Vogel, "Can Japan Disengage?: Winners and Losers in Japan's Political Economy and the Ties that Bind Them," Social Science JapanJournal 2-1(2001), pp. 3-21.

大嶽秀夫, 『自由主義的改革の時代』(中央公論社, 1994), esp. 65-238.

村松岐夫, 奥野正寛. 『平成バブルの研究(上)(下)』 (東洋経済新報社2002).

PART III: JAPAN’S FOREIGN RELATIONS

WEEK 11: Japan’s Foreign Policy Posture

Required:

Kenneth Pyle, The Japanese Question(DC: AEI 1996), pp. 20-42.

Michael Green, Japan’s Reluctant Realism (NY: Palgrave 2001), pp. 1-34.

Suggested:

Pyle, The Japanese Question, rest of the book.

Green, Japan’s Reluctant Realism, pp. 35-76.

五百旗頭眞 編, 『戰後日本外交史』(有斐閣 1999).

小澤一郞, 『日本改造計劃』(講壇社 1993).

船橋洋一, 『同盟漂流』(岩波書店 1997).

WEEK 12: Japan-US Relations

Required:

Michael Green, “Balance of Power,” in Steven Vogel ed., US-Japan Relations in a Changing World (DC: Brookings Institution Press 2002), pp. 9-35.

US-Japan Security Consultative Committee Document, “Joint Statement” (May 1, 2006) (

US-Japan Security Consultative Committee Document,“Transformation and Realignment for the Future,” (October 29, 2005) (

Suggested:

Christopher Hughes and Akiko Fukushima, “US-Japan Security Relations,” in Ellis Krauss and T.J. Pempel eds., Beyond Bilateralism (Stanford: StanfordUniversity Press 2004), pp. 55-86.

Mike Mochizuki, The US-Japan Security Alliance in the 21stCentury (Washington: Council on Foreign Relations, 1998).

WEEK 13: Japan-China Relations

Required:

Green, Japan’s Reluctant Realism, pp. 77-110.

Mike Mochizuki, “Terms of Engagement,” in Beyond Bilateralism, pp. 87-114.

Suggested:

Thomas Christensen, “China, the US-Japan Alliance and the Security Dilemma in East Asia,” G. John Ikenberry and Michael Mastanduno eds., International Relations Theory and the Asia-Pacific (NY: Columbia 2003), pp. 25-56.

毛利和子, 『日中關係』(東京: 岩波書店, 2006).

田中明彦, 『日中關係 1945-1990』 (東京: 東京大學出版會, 1991).

WEEK 14: Japan’s Multilateral Diplomacy

Required:

Takio Yamada, “Toward a Principled Integration of East Asia: Concept of an East Asian Community(1-4),”(

Green, Japan’s Reluctant Realism, pp. 193-228

Suggested:

谷口 誠, 『東アジア共同體』 (岩波新書 2004)

小原雅博,『東アジア共同體』(日本經濟新聞社 2005)

伊藤憲一 編 『東アジア共同體と日本の針路』 (NHK出版 2005).

WEEK 15: Korea-Japan Relations and Wrap-up Review

Required:

Green, Japan’s Reluctant Realism, pp. 111-143.

Suggested:

Takashi Inoguchi and Paul Bacon, “Japan’s Emerging Role as a “Global Ordinary Power,”International Relations of the Asia-Pacific vol 6 (2006), 1-21.

WEEK 16: Final exam

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