The SAGE Handbook of Modern Japanese Studies

A welcome addition to any reading list for those interested in contemporary Japanese society. - Roger Goodman, Nissan Professor of Modern Japanese Society, University of Oxford "I know no better book for an accessible and up-to-date introduction to this complex subject than The SAGE Handbook of Modern Japan Studies." - Hiroko Takeda, Associate Professor, Organization for Global Japanese Studies, University of Tokyo "Pioneering and nuanced in analysis, yet highly accessible and engaging in style." - Yoshio Sugimoto, Emeritus Professor, La Trobe University The SAGE Handbook of Modern Japanese Studies includes outstanding contributions from a diverse group of leading academics from across the globe. This volume is designed to serve as a major interdisciplinary reference work and a seminal text, both rigorous and accessible, to assist students and scholars in understanding one of the major nations of the world. James D. Babb is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University.  

Table of Contents:
Introduction - James Babb PART I: LAND, HISTORY AND CULTURE Modern Japan in History - Andrew Cobbing Anthropology of Modern Japan - Carolyn Stevens The Practice of Religion in Japan: An Exploration of the State of the Field - Lucia Dolce Mass Media in Japan - Katja Valaskivi Heritage Management in Present-day Japan - Noriaki Nishiyama Geography’s Contribution in Japanese Studies - Mary McDonald Regionalism and the Local - Anthony Rausch PART II: SOCIETY Education - Robert W. Aspinall Feminism - Vera Mackie ‘How to Sex’? The Contested Nature of Sexuality in Japan - Mark McLelland Gender Equity in Japan - Joyce Gelb Policing in Japan - David T. Johnson Organised Crime - Peter Hill PART III: MEDICINE AND HEALTH CARE A Brief History of Japanese Medicine - Izumi Yokoyama and Michael D. Fetters Health Care in Japan: Excellent Population Health, Low Medical Expenditures, yet Ambiguous Place of Primary Care - Jonathan E. Rodnick, Izumi Yokoyama and Michael D. Fetters Medical Education in Japan - Michael D. Fetters and Izumi Yokoyama Bioethics and Medico-legal Issues in Japan - Michael D. Fetters Mental Health in Japan - Denise St. Arnault PART IV: POLITICS AND FOREIGN RELATIONS Political ′Science′ and the Study of Japanese Politics - James Babb Parties and Election in Japan - Kenneth Mori McElwain Postwar Democracy - Sherry Martin Murphy Civil Society in Japan - Yuko Kawato, Robert Pekkanen and Hidehiro Yamamoto Japan’s International Relations - Christopher W. Hughes Japan and Globalization - Hugo Dobson Japan-United States Relations - Paul Midford Foreign Relations with China - Caroline Rose PART V: ECONOMY The Japanese Economy - Marcus Rebick Japanese Business and Management - Parissa Haghirian Japanese Consumers and Consumerism - Parissa Haghirian Labor Relations - Akira Suzuki Foreign Workers in Japan - Gabriele Vogt Agriculture - Aurelia George Mulgan Energy - Alexandru P. Luta and Paul Midford

About the Author :
James Babb is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He holds an MA in East Asian Studies and PhD in Political Science from Stanford University. He is also currently the Newcastle University representative for the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee (UK) and a member of the international advisory board for the British Association of Japanese Studies journal Japan Forum. He has published a number of journal articles on Japan and is the author of Tanaka and the Making of Post-war Japan (2000), Business and Politics in Japan (2001) and co-author of Empirical Political Analysis (2012), a textbook for political science methodology.

Review :
The chapters in this handbook each provide concise, up-to-date and highly accessible accounts of the state of the academic field - and how it is likely to develop - across an impressively wide range of topics. As a result, it will be a welcome addition to any reading list for those interested in contemporary Japanese society. This reference book provides cutting-edge studies of contemporary Japan by leading scholars. It covers a wide-range of topics, including such hitherto little explored areas as heritage management, energy supply and medicine in Japan, thus sensitizing the reader to more diverse aspects of the complex society. It is pioneering and nuanced in analysis, yet highly accessible and engaging in style. The Sage Handbook of Modern Japanese Studies presents an authoritative overview of Japan today and will prove to be a great first port of call for students and the general public interested in this intellectually challenging country. Japan has undergone profound political, economic and social transformations since the 1990s. I know no better book for an accessible and up-to-date introduction to this complex subject than the SAGE Handbook of Modern Japan Studies. With well-informed overviews on a series of topics by experts in the field, the SAGE Handbook of Modern Japan Studies serves as a pertinent reminder of the place and importance of Japan in the world and its study for the social science research Its contributions will surely be broadly used in higher education in introduction courses on Japan and in introductory sessions of advanced teaching on Japan. The SAGE Handbook is a brilliant tool, serves as a very good primer and review of the Anglophone study on Japan, and is far from being impenetrable to the general public. Most chapters have a bibliography roughly equal in page length to their essay, and within this cross-disciplinary study of Japan explicitly execute their own sustained interdisciplinary methods too. So overall, this edited collection is a massive contribution towards a tiny need. Japanese studies have been making such headway that academics might even now say ′Japan is BACK!′. The SAGE Handbook exceeds itself by not just capturing a small portion of that success, but presenting a refreshed and comprehensive review of the state of play that itself inspires appreciation of all manner of study on Japan, and could very well motivate the continuation of the Japan interest boom.