Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles) ISSN (Print) 1369-1465 - ISSN (Online) 1468-2680 Published by Oxford University Press[425 journals]
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Pages: 1 - 2 Abstract: Since 2002, the Institute of Social Science (ISS) of the University of Tokyo has partnered with Oxford University Press (OUP) to award the ISS–OUP Prize to the author of the best article published in Social Science Japan Journal (SSJJ) each year. The prize includes £250 worth of books from OUP and a year’s subscription to SSJJ. With the author’s consent, the winning paper may be translated into Japanese and published in the Institute’s Shakai Kagaku Kenkyū (The Journal of Social Science). After soliciting recommendations from SSJJ’s International Editorial Board, the SSJJ Editorial Board selects the article that makes the most significant contribution to research on modern Japan. The main criteria are (a) originality of the research theme, (b) excellence of theoretical framework and empirical data, and (c) contribution to future studies in the field. PubDate: Thu, 11 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad028 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2024)
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Pages: 3 - 4 Abstract: SSJJ and the wider Japanese studies community mourn the loss of an extraordinary scholar and friend, Ehud Harari, who passed away on 5 August 2023. Dr. Harari held the distinguished position of Emeritus Professor of Asian Studies and Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and he was also the esteemed Honorary President of the Israel Association for Japanese Studies. PubDate: Wed, 10 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad029 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2024)
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Pages: 57 - 76 Abstract: AbstractThe relocation of the controversial Marine base at Futenma on Okinawa to Henoko in the north of the same island has been framed by Japanese politicians, officials, and analysts as crucial to deterrence. Critics respond that deterrence is merely a pretext, and the relocation is a politically convenient solution that perpetuates discrimination against Okinawa by the central government in Tokyo. This article draws on deterrence theory to evaluate the deterrence claims made by relocation proponents. It finds little evidence to support them: the Marines’ capabilities pale against the massive US forward deployment, including the Seventh Fleet and the Fifth Air Force. As for the local balance of forces, the Marines are unlikely to participate immediately in a local conflict, and their geographical location leaves them vulnerable; current US strategy is to down-scale and disperse Marine units. If one were focusing on defence rather than political convenience, the Marines would be relocated off Okinawa. In terms of credibility, the article finds that other US bases in Japan play a much more important ‘tripwire’ role, and ultimately, given inter alia the security treaty, joint exercises, and deep interoperability, US extended deterrence to Japan is as credible as possible under the circumstances. PubDate: Tue, 20 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad024 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2024)
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Pages: 77 - 90 Abstract: AbstractTo manage the COVID-19 pandemic, the Japanese government has cooperated with multiple actors, such as experts, prefectural governments, and medical professionals, who generally attract limited attention in non-crisis times. While cooperation with such actors allows the central government to mobilize knowledge and utilize resources it does not have, such collaboration could diffuse the responsibility of COVID-19-related measures onto other actors. To empirically test this conjecture, we conducted an online survey experiment prior to the 2021 Japanese general election. It investigated whether the government’s cooperation with experts, prefectural governors, medical professionals, and the International Olympic Committee obscured its responsibility in the declaration of stay-at-home advisories, securing of beds, and conducting of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. The results deliver no evidence that informing people of the influence of any actor diffused the government’s responsibility for the implementation of COVID-19-related measures. The findings of this study imply that the Japanese people held the national government accountable even during the COVID-19 pandemic. PubDate: Wed, 17 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad027 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2024)
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Pages: 103 - 106 Abstract: Arbiters of Patriotism: Right-Wing Scholars in Imperial Japan by PersonJohnHonolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2020, 226 pp., $80.00 cloth (ISBN 978-0-8248-8178-8) PubDate: Mon, 22 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad030 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2024)
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Pages: 121 - 124 Abstract: Ryokan: Mobilizing Hospitality in Rural Japan by McMorranChrisHonolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2022, 220 pp., $80.00 cloth (ISBN 978-0-8248-8897-8) PubDate: Tue, 05 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyae001 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2024)
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Pages: 5 - 20 Abstract: AbstractPrime Minister Suga Yoshihide passed a set of digital laws in 2021, which enabled the establishment of the Digital Agency as a central element in the e-government and the digital transition in Japan. Despite its great significance, the laws were prepared and passed in a record-breaking time. This article sets out to determine the factors contributing to the swift acceptance and success of the digital law package utilizing the multiple stream framework by John W. Kingdon. It demonstrates how Suga’s ambitions coincided with a unique policy window opened by an unlikely confluence of the global pandemic and a persistent policy community. PubDate: Fri, 15 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad020 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2023)
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Pages: 21 - 40 Abstract: AbstractDespite rapid demographic decline, until recently, low-skilled migrant workers have been welcomed only through ‘side-doors’ such as technical interns (TITP). Yet pressure for change comes from two sides: the moral critique of the ‘side-door’ scheme, and the growing economic pressures of a dwindling labor force. In 2018 Japan put in place a short-term bona-fide labor scheme (Specified Skilled Worker; hereafter, SSW) in fields previously largely inaccessible to foreign labor. In combination with the TITP schemes, these workers are allowed to stay longer. But what do these changes mean, how do the farmer-employers see them, and will the SSW lead to a sustainable farm labor supply going forward' We explore stakeholders’ views of the current schemes and their opinions on how low-skilled labor migration should proceed in agriculture. Businesses are desperate for labor, but not at any cost. Under SSW, employers are being asked to change the ways they envision and treat migrant labor. The tensions between their expectations and the realities on the ground reflect the contradictions that Japan’s migration policies inherit, based in the bureaucratic fiction that only ‘skilled’ labor is necessary. Data for this paper come from qualitative interviews conducted from 2018 to 2022 in Kyoto, Aichi, and Tokyo. PubDate: Thu, 28 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad016 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2023)
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Pages: 41 - 56 Abstract: AbstractIt is well known that during the 1930s and the 1940s intellectuals in Japan, an island state, devoured geopolitical theories constructed in a typical ‘land power’, Germany. Not only did this fad contradict the geographical reality of Japanese territory. It was also at odds with Japan’s contemporary national identity as a maritime state. This article highlights intellectual path dependence as the key to explaining this conundrum. The initial decision that paved the way for the adoption of the German tradition of geopolitics was made shortly before the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War by political scientist Onozuka Kiheiji, who consciously opted for the geographical ideas of Friedrich Ratzel instead of the naval strategy of Alfred Thayer Mahan as a theoretical guide and justification for empire-building. This article illustrates how the choice made by Onozuka induced his students, who became leading intellectual figures after World War I, to follow the evolution of German geopolitics and to propagate the ideas of Karl Haushofer at the beginning of the Pacific War. The article ends by briefly describing how the Geopolitik tradition was overcome by the formation of a new maritime national identity after the war. PubDate: Thu, 21 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad014 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2023)
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Pages: 91 - 100 Abstract: AbstractAs is the case in many countries, university reform is a perennial topic of discussion in Japan and there is an extensive domestic literature on this topic, ranging in character from tabloid to scholarly. The purpose of this essay is to introduce some of the themes currently preoccupying Japanese authors at the more scholarly end of this spectrum. The essay reviews texts dealing with the fundamental nature of ‘Japanese’ universities, how they are managed, and their relationship with government, all with a view to identifying ways out of the gridlock of intractable problems and unworkable solutions which, as the essay explains, afflicts much of the existing literature. The essay highlights especially contributions which lack direct parallels in the international Anglophone literature on university reform, encouraging readers to explore further for themselves and initiate greater dialogue between vernacular and ‘global’ scholarly traditions. PubDate: Thu, 20 Jul 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad011 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2023)
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Pages: 101 - 102 Abstract: Fukushima and Civil Society: The Japanese Anti-Nuclear Movement from a Socio-Political Perspective by BochorodyczBeataLondon: Routledge, 2022, 234 pp., £120.00 cloth (ISBN: 9781032017020) PubDate: Tue, 21 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad022 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2023)
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Pages: 107 - 110 Abstract: Housing in Post-Growth Society: Japan on the Edge of Social Transition by HirayamaYosuke and IzuharaMisaAbingdon: Routledge, 2018, 184 pp., £36.99 paper (ISBN 978-0-367-33192-4) PubDate: Sat, 04 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad018 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2023)
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Pages: 111 - 112 Abstract: Toshi Kyojū no Shakaigaku: Shakai Chōsa kara yomitoku Nihon no Jūtaku Seisaku (Sociology of Urban Settlements: Japanese Housing Policy as Interpreted from Social Surveys) by OtaniShinsukeKyoto: Minerva shobo, 2020, 250 pp., ¥2,750 cloth (ISBN 978-4-623-09043-3) PubDate: Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad025 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2023)
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Pages: 113 - 114 Abstract: Harvesting State Support: Institutional Change and Local Agency in Japanese Agriculture by JentzschHannoToronto: University of Toronto Press, 2021, 288 pp., $52.00 cloth (ISBN 978-1-4875-0854-8) PubDate: Tue, 21 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad021 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2023)
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Pages: 115 - 118 Abstract: Rethinking Locality in Japan edited by GanseforthSonja and JentzschHannoLondon and New York: Routledge, 2021, 306 pp., £34.99 paper (ISBN 9780367469481) PubDate: Thu, 28 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad015 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2023)
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Pages: 119 - 120 Abstract: Kyoto Revisited: Heritage Tourism in Contemporary Japan by ProughJennifer S.Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2022, 240 pp., $85.00 cloth (ISBN 978-0-8248-8853-4) PubDate: Thu, 28 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad026 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2023)
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Pages: 125 - 128 Abstract: Reworking Japan: Changing Men at Work and Play under Neoliberalism by Gagné.Nana OkuraIthaca & London: Cornell University Press, 2020, 285 pp., $44.95 cloth (ISBN 978-1-5017-5303-9) PubDate: Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad023 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2023)
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Pages: 131 - 131 Abstract: This is a correction to: Romeo Marcantuoni, Sengo nihon no ‘kakushin’ seiryoku—teikō to suibō no seijishi (Reformists in Postwar Japan: A Postwar History of Opposition and Decline), Social Science Japan Journal, 2023;, jyad006, https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyad006 PubDate: Thu, 07 Sep 2023 00:00:00 GMT DOI: 10.1093/ssjj/jyad017 Issue No:Vol. 27, No. 1 (2023)
Hybrid journal (It can contain Open Access articles)
