Calendar

Historical Introduction

CLASS # TOPICS ASSIGNMENTS
1 Politics and policy in contemporary Japan  
2 The "Modernization" of Japan  
3 From Taisho to Showa  
4 Transwar political history  
5 Japanese culture and society  
6 Japan incorporated [?]  

 

Politics

CLASS # TOPICS ASSIGNMENTS
I. Party politics
7 The party system after 1993  
8 The liberal democratic party  
9 The diet  
II. Electoral politics
10 The electoral system  
11 Voter mobilization and voting behavior First undergraduate paper due
12 Midterm exam in class  
III. Civil society and interest group politics
13 Civil society  
14 Organized labor  
15 The Zaikai  
IV. Bureaucratic politics
16 The bureaucracy First graduate paper due
17 The budget process  

 

Public Policy

CLASS # TOPICS ASSIGNMENTS
18 Social policy  
19 Defense and foreign policy Second undergraduate paper due
20 Energy policy  
21 Science and technology process  
22 Industrial policy  
23 Japan in the Post-Cold War World  
24

No Readings

Debate: Change at Last? Or change at least? Students will be assigned to one of two teams: affirmative and negative on the general proposition,"Japan is changing."

Second graduate paper due
25 Undergraduate meeting