State and Society in Post-War Japan / Edition 1

by Bernard Eccleston

Overview

State and Society in Post-War Japan integrates the previous work of disciplinary specialists into a coherent account of how Japanese society has changed since the war.

Bernard Eccleston focuses on the way the Japanese state has been managed in the face of unprecedented economic growth rates up to the mid 1970s, and their subsequent slackening in recent times. He examines how political and social processes are organized to reinforce the drive to make Japan the world's number one economy. In assessing the organizing role of the state, full weight is given to the ways in which the state incorporates competing interests by disarming the opposition of groups who have been excluded from the 'benefits' of economic growth. These groups include women, men working outside large firms, racial minorities, outcasts and citizens' protest groups.

Eccleston also raises important questions that are of direct relevance to other industrial societies. In particular, he asks what has been the cost to Japanese society of rapid economic development. Eccleston's answer provides a vital counterbalance to the prevailing tendency to see Japan as a blueprint for ailing Western economies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780745601663
Publisher:	Polity Press
Publication date:	01/08/1991
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	6.01(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.89(d)

About the Author

Bernard Eccleston is the author of State and Society in Post-War Japan, published by Wiley.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations.

Acknowledgements.

1. Conflict or Consensus: Competing Images of Japan.

2. An Economic Structure of Interdependent Rivals.

3. A Flexible Labour Market.

4. A Planned Market Economy.

5. The Japanese Polity.

6. Social Divisions in Japan.

7. Continuity and Change in the Japanese Social Process.

Bibliography.

Index.

Editorial Reviews

"... a book which can be safely recommended to colleagues and students who want or need to know more about contemporary Japan." (Times Higher Education Supplement)

"[a] comprehensive study" (International Review of Administrative Sciences)

"an outstanding contribution. ...[this book] corrects many popular misconceptions about Japan ... a useful book because of the broad arguments that it develops." (British Journal of Industrial Relations)

"A substantial example of critical empirical sociology. It should become a standard text in the sociology of Japan and of industrial society." (Reviewing Sociology)

From the Publisher