Negotiating Censorship In Modern Japan

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Negotiating Censorship in Modern Japan

Author : Rachael Hutchinson
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135069816
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Negotiating Censorship in Modern Japan by : Rachael Hutchinson

Download or read book Negotiating Censorship in Modern Japan written by Rachael Hutchinson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-21 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Censorship in Japan has seen many changes over the last 150 years and each successive system of rule has possessed its own censorship laws, regulations, and methods of enforcement. Yet what has remained constant through these many upheavals has been the process of negotiation between censor and artist that can be seen across the cultural media of modern society. By exploring censorship in a number of different Japanese art forms – from popular music and kabuki performance through to fiction, poetry and film – across a range of historical periods, this book provides a striking picture of the pervasiveness and strength of Japanese censorship across a range of media; the similar tactics used by artists of different media to negotiate censorship boundaries; and how censors from different systems and time periods face many of the same problems and questions in their work. The essays in this collection highlight the complexities of the censorship process by investigating the responsibilities and choices of all four groups – artists, censors, audience and ideologues – in a wide range of case studies. The contributors shift the focus away from top-down suppression, towards the more complex negotiations involved in the many stages of an artistic work, all of which involve movement within boundaries, as well as testing of those boundaries, on the part of both artist and censor. Taken together, the essays in this book demonstrate that censorship at every stage involves an act of human judgment, in a context determined by political, economic and ideological factors. This book and its case studies provide a fascinating insight into the dynamics of censorship and how these operate on both people and texts. As such, it will be of great interest to students and scholars interested in Japanese studies, Japanese culture, society and history, and media studies more generally.

Negotiating Censorship in Modern Japan

Author : Rachael Hutchinson
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135069824
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Negotiating Censorship in Modern Japan by : Rachael Hutchinson

Download or read book Negotiating Censorship in Modern Japan written by Rachael Hutchinson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-21 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Censorship in Japan has seen many changes over the last 150 years and each successive system of rule has possessed its own censorship laws, regulations, and methods of enforcement. Yet what has remained constant through these many upheavals has been the process of negotiation between censor and artist that can be seen across the cultural media of modern society. By exploring censorship in a number of different Japanese art forms – from popular music and kabuki performance through to fiction, poetry and film – across a range of historical periods, this book provides a striking picture of the pervasiveness and strength of Japanese censorship across a range of media; the similar tactics used by artists of different media to negotiate censorship boundaries; and how censors from different systems and time periods face many of the same problems and questions in their work. The essays in this collection highlight the complexities of the censorship process by investigating the responsibilities and choices of all four groups – artists, censors, audience and ideologues – in a wide range of case studies. The contributors shift the focus away from top-down suppression, towards the more complex negotiations involved in the many stages of an artistic work, all of which involve movement within boundaries, as well as testing of those boundaries, on the part of both artist and censor. Taken together, the essays in this book demonstrate that censorship at every stage involves an act of human judgment, in a context determined by political, economic and ideological factors. This book and its case studies provide a fascinating insight into the dynamics of censorship and how these operate on both people and texts. As such, it will be of great interest to students and scholars interested in Japanese studies, Japanese culture, society and history, and media studies more generally.

Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature

Author : Rachael Hutchinson
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317647726
Total Pages : 364 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (176 download)

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Book Synopsis Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature by : Rachael Hutchinson

Download or read book Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature written by Rachael Hutchinson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-03 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature provides a comprehensive overview of how we study Japanese literature today. Rather than taking a purely chronological approach to the content, the chapters survey the state of the field through a number of pressing issues and themes, examining the ways in which it is possible to read modern Japanese literature and situate it in relation to critical theory. The Handbook examines various modes of literary production (such as fiction, poetry, and critical essays) as distinct forms of expression that nonetheless are closely interrelated. Attention is drawn to the idea of the bunjin as a ‘person of letters’ and a more realistic assessment is provided of how writers have engaged with ideas – not labelled a ‘novelist’ or ‘poet’, but a ‘writer’ who may at one time or another choose to write in various forms. The book provides an overview of major authors and genres by situating them within broader themes that have defined the way writers have produced literature in modern Japan, as well as how those works have been read and understood by different readers in different time periods. The Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature draws from an international array of established experts in the field as well as promising young researchers. It represents a wide variety of critical approaches, giving the study a broad range of perspectives. This handbook will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian Studies, Literature, Sociology, Critical Theory, and History.

Religion and Psychotherapy in Modern Japan

Author : Christopher Harding
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317683005
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (176 download)

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Book Synopsis Religion and Psychotherapy in Modern Japan by : Christopher Harding

Download or read book Religion and Psychotherapy in Modern Japan written by Christopher Harding and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the late nineteenth century, religious ideas and practices in Japan have become increasingly intertwined with those associated with mental health and healing. This relationship developed against the backdrop of a far broader, and deeply consequential meeting: between Japan’s long-standing, Chinese-influenced intellectual and institutional forms, and the politics, science, philosophy, and religion of the post-Enlightenment West. In striving to craft a modern society and culture that could exist on terms with – rather than be subsumed by – western power and influence, Japan became home to a religion--psy dialogue informed by pressing political priorities and rapidly shifting cultural concerns. This book provides a historically contextualized introduction to the dialogue between religion and psychotherapy in modern Japan. In doing so, it draws out connections between developments in medicine, government policy, Japanese religion and spirituality, social and cultural criticism, regional dynamics, and gender relations. The chapters all focus on the meeting and intermingling of religious with psychotherapeutic ideas and draw on a wide range of case studies including: how temple and shrine ‘cures’ of early modern Japan fared in the light of German neuropsychiatry; how Japanese Buddhist theories of mind, body, and self-cultivation negotiated with the findings of western medicine; how Buddhists, Christians, and other organizations and groups drew and redrew the lines between religious praxis and psychological healing; how major European therapies such as Freud’s fed into self-consciously Japanese analyses of and treatments for the ills of the age; and how distress, suffering, and individuality came to be reinterpreted across the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, from the southern islands of Okinawa to the devastated northern neighbourhoods of the Tohoku region after the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters of March 2011. Religion and Psychotherapy in Modern Japan will be welcomed by students and scholars working across a broad range of subjects, including Japanese culture and society, religious studies, psychology and psychotherapy, mental health, and international history.

Sound, Space and Sociality in Modern Japan

Author : Joseph D. Hankins
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135018502
Total Pages : 158 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Sound, Space and Sociality in Modern Japan by : Joseph D. Hankins

Download or read book Sound, Space and Sociality in Modern Japan written by Joseph D. Hankins and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-12-04 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that sound – as it is created, transmitted, and perceived – plays a key role in the constitution of space and community in contemporary Japan. The book examines how sonic practices reflect politics, aesthetics, and ethics, with transformative effects on human relations. From right-wing sound trucks to left-wing protests, from early 20th century jazz cafes to contemporary avant-garde art forms, from the sounds of U.S. military presence to exuberant performances organized in opposition, the book, rich in ethnographic detail, contributes to sensory anthropology and the anthropology of contemporary Japan.

Career Women in Contemporary Japan

Author : Anne Stefanie Aronsson
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317686985
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (176 download)

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Book Synopsis Career Women in Contemporary Japan by : Anne Stefanie Aronsson

Download or read book Career Women in Contemporary Japan written by Anne Stefanie Aronsson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-24 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since Japan’s economic recession began in the 1990s, the female workforce has experienced revolutionary changes as greater numbers of women have sought to establish careers. Employment trends indicate that increasingly white-collar professional women are succeeding in breaking through the "glass ceiling", as digital technologies blur and redefine work in spatial, gendered, and ideological terms. This book examines what motivates Japanese women to pursue professional careers in the contemporary neoliberal economy, and how they reconfigure notions of selfhood while doing so. It analyses how professional women contest conventional notions of femininity in contemporary Japan and in turn, negotiate new gender roles and cultural assumptions about women, whilst reorganizing the Japanese workplace and wider socio-economic relationships. Further, the book explores how professional women create new social identities through the mutual conditioning of structure and self, and asks how women come to understand their experiences; how their actions change the gendering of the workforce; and how their lives shape the economic, political, social, and cultural landscapes of this post-industrial nation. Based on extensive fieldwork, Career Women in Contemporary Japan will have broad appeal across a range of disciplines including Japanese culture and society, gender and family studies, women’s studies, anthropology, ethnology and sociology.

Post-Fascist Japan

Author : Laura Hein
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 135002581X
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (5 download)

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Book Synopsis Post-Fascist Japan by : Laura Hein

Download or read book Post-Fascist Japan written by Laura Hein and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-02-22 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In late 1945 local Japanese turned their energies toward creating new behaviors and institutions that would give young people better skills to combat repression at home and coercion abroad. They rapidly transformed their political culture-policies, institutions, and public opinion-to create a more equitable, democratic and peaceful society. Post-Fascist Japan explores this phenomenon, focusing on a group of highly educated Japanese based in the city of Kamakura, where the new political culture was particularly visible. The book argues that these leftist elites, many of whom had been seen as 'the enemy' during the war, saw the problem as one of fascism, an ideology that had succeeded because it had addressed real problems. They turned their efforts to overtly political-legal systems but also to ostensibly non-political and community institutions such as universities, art museums, local tourism, and environmental policies, aiming not only for reconciliation over the past but also to reduce the anxieties that had drawn so many towards fascism. By focusing on people who had an outsized influence on Japan's political culture, Hein's study is local, national, and transnational. She grounds her discussion using specific personalities, showing their ideas about 'post-fascism', how they implemented them and how they interacted with the American occupiers.

Tokyo Boogie-Woogie

Author : Hiromu Nagahara
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674978412
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (749 download)

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Book Synopsis Tokyo Boogie-Woogie by : Hiromu Nagahara

Download or read book Tokyo Boogie-Woogie written by Hiromu Nagahara and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-04-10 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emerging in the 1920s, the Japanese pop scene gained a devoted following, and the soundscape of the next four decades became the audible symbol of changing times. In the first English-language history of this Japanese industry, Hiromu Nagahara connects the rise of mass entertainment with Japan’s transformation into a postwar middle-class society.

Japan’s Private Spheres: Autonomy in Japanese History, 1600-1930

Author : William Puck Brecher
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004450157
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis Japan’s Private Spheres: Autonomy in Japanese History, 1600-1930 by : William Puck Brecher

Download or read book Japan’s Private Spheres: Autonomy in Japanese History, 1600-1930 written by William Puck Brecher and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-03-29 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan's Private Spheres: Autonomy in Japanese History, 1600-1930 explores the genesis and historical development of autonomy and its evolving relationship with public authority in early modern and modern Japan.

The Representation of Japanese Politics in Manga

Author : Roman Rosenbaum
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000217299
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis The Representation of Japanese Politics in Manga by : Roman Rosenbaum

Download or read book The Representation of Japanese Politics in Manga written by Roman Rosenbaum and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-29 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume explores political motives, discourses and agendas in Japanese manga and graphic art with the objective of highlighting the agency of Japanese and wider Asian story-telling traditions within the context of global political traditions. Highly illustrated chapters presented here investigate the multifaceted relationship between Japan’s political storytelling practices, media and bureaucratic discourse, as played out between both the visual arts and modern pop-cultural authors. From pioneering cartoonist Tezuka Osamu, contemporary manga artists such as Kotobuki Shiriagari and Fumiyo Kōno, to videogames and everyday merchandise, a wealth of source material is analysed using cross-genre techniques. Furthermore, the book resists claims that manga, unlike the bandes dessinées and American superhero comic traditions, is apolitical. On the contrary, contributors demonstrate that manga and the mediality of graphic arts have begun to actively incorporate political discourses, undermining hegemonic cultural constructs that support either the status quo, or emerging brands of neonationalism in Japanese society. The Representation of Politics in Manga will be a dynamic resource for students and scholars of Japanese studies, media and popular cultural studies, as well as practitioners in the graphic arts.

A Cultural History of Postwar Japan

Author : Oliviero Frattolillo
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1000909670
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis A Cultural History of Postwar Japan by : Oliviero Frattolillo

Download or read book A Cultural History of Postwar Japan written by Oliviero Frattolillo and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-14 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a political and cultural history of the early postwar Japan aiming at exploring how the perception and cultural values of everyday life in the country changed along with the rise of the kasutori culture. Such a process was closely tied with both a refusal of the samurai culture and the interwar debate on modernity, and it resulted in a decadent way of life, exemplified by intellectuals such as Sakaguchi Ango. It depicts a short-lived radical cultural and social alternative, one that forced people to rethink their relationship to the kokutai, modernity, social roles, daily practices, and the production of knowledge. The subjectivity and daily practices in those years were more important in shaping the cultural identities of the Japanese than the new public ideology of the nation. This challenges some Euro-American historical notions that the new private sphere has emerged in Japan as an effect of the country’s Americanization, rather than from within it. This work not only looks at the immediate aftermath of WWII from the perspective of Japan, but also tries to rethink Westernization in the light of its global appropriation. This volume is addressed to specialists of Japanese or Asian history, but it will also attract historians of the United States and readers from political and intellectual history, cultural studies, and historiography in general.

Introducing Japanese Popular Culture

Author : Alisa Freedman
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 131752893X
Total Pages : 550 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis Introducing Japanese Popular Culture by : Alisa Freedman

Download or read book Introducing Japanese Popular Culture written by Alisa Freedman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-01-02 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Specifically designed for use on a range of undergraduate and graduate courses, Introducing Japanese Popular Culture is a comprehensive textbook offering an up-to-date overview of a wide variety of media forms. It uses particular case studies as a way into examining the broader themes in Japanese culture and provides a thorough analysis of the historical and contemporary trends that have shaped artistic production, as well as, politics, society, and economics. As a result, more than being a time capsule of influential trends, this book teaches enduring lessons about how popular culture reflects the societies that produce and consume it. With contributions from an international team of scholars, representing a range of disciplines from history and anthropology to art history and media studies, the book’s sections include: Television Videogames Music Popular Cinema Anime Manga Popular Literature Fashion Contemporary Art Written in an accessible style by a stellar line-up of international contributors, this textbook will be essential reading for students of Japanese culture and society, Asian media and popular culture, and Asian Studies in general.

Japan's Border Issues

Author : Akihiro Iwashita
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 131742400X
Total Pages : 167 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (174 download)

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Book Synopsis Japan's Border Issues by : Akihiro Iwashita

Download or read book Japan's Border Issues written by Akihiro Iwashita and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-30 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japan was sometimes described as a country of "peace" during the Cold War period, in contrast to the continental border conflicts taking place at the time, such as the China-Soviet rivalry. However, as the maritime frontier was "rediscovered" and defined by the regional powers and legal refinements of the 1970s, the process of states seeking a secure maritime zone has accelerated and maritime rivalries have become as intense as inland rivalries. This book examines the territorial disputes souring relations between Japan and its three neighbours: Russia, South Korea and China. It combines an empirical study with theoretical advancements in comparative research to understand the Cold War and post-Cold War border issues related to Japan, particularly the Northern Territories/South Kurils dispute with Russia; Takeshima/Dokto with Korea; and Senkaku/Diaoyu with China and Taiwan. Based on the history of negotiations with the Soviet Union and Russia over the course of fifty years, the study offers a series of practical suggestions to enable these disputes to be separated from arguments over their history and resolved on the basis of the principle of mutual advantage for those affected by them. This book provides not only the key to resolving these three disputes affecting East Asia, but the framework in which to seek the resolution of other territorial issues worldwide. Explaining the history and possible outcomes of Japan’s territorial disputes with Russia, South Korea and China whilst providing concrete steps for resolving entrenched territorial disputes, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of International Relations, Japanese Politics and International Law.

Japanese Women in Science and Engineering

Author : Naonori Kodate
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 131759505X
Total Pages : 158 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis Japanese Women in Science and Engineering by : Naonori Kodate

Download or read book Japanese Women in Science and Engineering written by Naonori Kodate and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-30 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The gender gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) varies greatly from country to country, and the number of Japanese women in these fields remains relatively few. This prompts us to ask why the proportion of female scientists in Japan is still remarkably low and what measures the government, universities and research institutes are taking to address this issue. This book sheds light on historical developments and the current gender equality situation in Japan, through the lens of women in STEM. It shows how a policy of gender equality in science and engineering has been introduced through the coordinated efforts of academia, scientific societies and the government, and how this has led to a slow but steady increase in female representation. The book draws on extensive data including interviews with government officials, scientists and educators in Japan to provide a revealing case study on how the underrepresentation of women in the fields of science, technology and engineering has been approached and dealt with by a national government. It heralds a new era for female scientists, by showcasing several programmes undertaken by government, universities and national research institutions to support multiple career paths for and the progression of female scientists in Japan. Tracing the historical development of Japan’s policies towards women in science and education, this book will be welcomed by students and scholars interested in Japanese studies, comparative social policy, gender studies, employment and the history of science and technology.

Party Politics in Japan

Author : Ronald J. Hrebenar
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317745965
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (177 download)

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Book Synopsis Party Politics in Japan by : Ronald J. Hrebenar

Download or read book Party Politics in Japan written by Ronald J. Hrebenar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Japanese political system is a parliamentary democracy and was the first western style government in Asia when the parliamentary system was adopted in the 1880s. It has a multiparty system, free elections, and a parliament that functions much the same way that any other democratic parliament functions, however for much of its existence the Japanese party system has been dominated by one party. This fact is crucial to understanding contemporary politics in Japan, especially since the long term ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, is once again back in power. This book presents an up-to-date analysis of the political parties that make up the Japanese party system and their impact on Japanese politics and government. Given that the executive branch is selected as a result of the pattern of party numbers in the parliament, to understand Japanese politics and policy, one must first know the nature of the ruling and opposition parties and their leaders. Indeed, in the past decade the quality of Japan’s government has been closely associated with the strengths and weaknesses of Japan’s prime ministers and the dominant party in the system. This book focuses on a central question: why Japanese politics and government has been so dysfunctional in the past two decades? With this question in mind, the chapters provide key background information on Japanese politics and political parties; discuss each of the major political parties that have governed Japan since 1955; and finally, examine the December 2012 House of Representatives elections that returned the LDP to power, and the differences between the First (1955-1993) and the Second Post War Party Systems (1993- ). Party Politics in Japan provides a comprehensive analysis of the past sixty years of Japanese party politics. As such, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese politics and Asian politics, as well as to those interested in political parties and political systems more broadly.

Examining Japan's Lost Decades

Author : Yoichi Funabashi
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 131750335X
Total Pages : 424 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis Examining Japan's Lost Decades by : Yoichi Funabashi

Download or read book Examining Japan's Lost Decades written by Yoichi Funabashi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-04-10 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines five features of Japan’s ‘Lost Decades’: the speed of the economic decline in Japan compared to Japan’s earlier global prowess; a rapidly declining population; considerable political instability and failed reform attempts; shifting balances of power in the region and changing relations with Asian neighbouring nations; and the lingering legacy of World War Two. Addressing the question of why the decades were lost, this book offers 15 new perspectives ranging from economics to ideology and beyond. Investigating problems such as the risk-averse behaviour of Japan’s bureaucracy and the absence of strong political leadership, the authors analyse how the delay of ‘loss-cutting policies’ led to the 1997 financial crisis and a state of political gridlock where policymakers could not decide on firm strategies that would benefit national interests. To discuss the rebuilding of Japan, the authors argue that it is first essential to critically examine Japan’s ‘Lost Decades’ and this book offers a comprehensive overview of Japan’s recent 20 years of crisis. The book reveals that the ‘Lost Decades’ is not an issue unique to the Japanese context but has global relevance, and its study can provide important insights into challenges being faced in other mature economies. With chapters written by some of the world’s leading Japan specialists and chapters focusing on a variety of disciplines, this book will be of interest to students and scholars in the areas of Japan studies, Politics, International Relations, Security Studies, Government Policy and History.

Decision-Making Reform in Japan

Author : Karol Zakowski
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317518497
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis Decision-Making Reform in Japan by : Karol Zakowski

Download or read book Decision-Making Reform in Japan written by Karol Zakowski and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-04-24 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the election to the House of Representatives in 2009, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) almost tripled the number of its lower house members by winning 308 seats. It subsequently formed a coalition government with the Social Democratic Party and the People’s New Party. The new ruling party promised to completely overhaul policymaking mechanisms that had been shaped over the past decades. Yet, the Japanese people quickly felt disappointed with the DPJ’s ‘policymaking engineering’. Examining the evolution of the decision-making process in Japan under the DPJ administration between the years 2009-2012, this book offers a multidimensional explanation for the reasons for the DPJ’s failure in producing effective policymaking mechanisms. Implementing conceptual tools borrowed from historical institutionalism, the author explains why the Democrats displayed inflexibility in introducing selected elements of the Westminster system, incoherence in regard to many aspects of the decision-making reform, and unwillingness to take advantage of all of the institutional resources at their disposal. The book argues that the examination of the DPJ’s origins and interactions with other parties is crucial in understanding its misconceptions regarding the institutional model, policy vision, and institutional tools required for a durable change in policymaking patterns. Illustrating its argument with a range of case studies, this book explains why, ultimately, the DPJ’s concept of a politician-led government resulted in failure. It will also be helpful in understanding the prerequisites for the success of institutional reforms in general. As such it will be of interest to students and scholars of Japanese studies, Political science, Asian studies.