Winner of the 2000 Yomiuri Yoshino Sakuzo Prize for academic writing on politics, economics, and history, this book locates the modern history of Southeast Asia within the framework of a “maritime Asia＂ which emerged from trade and commerce, state formation, imperial/global hegemonic ambitions, and popular resistance. It examines the rise of British-led collective imperialism in the nineteenth century and Pax Americana in the mid-twentieth century, and looks closely at the ways in which Japan navigated the evolving regional system. In its pages, the maritime Asia experience is examined comparatively across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. A new author's note brings this English-language edition up to date on regional developments since the original publication.

The Dojima Rice Exchange of the Edo period (1603-1868), located in Osaka, Japan, is known among researchers as “the world’s first futures trading market.” Much as modern markets do today, the Edo-period Dojima market had a market for trading securities called rice certificates and an index futures market for trading indices derived from those securities. The market economy and the Exchange itself became extraordinarily dynamic, astounding observers of the time. But a dynamic market poses its own challenges, as we in our times know all too well. How did the people and government of the Edo period, who had no precedents to draw on, let alone economists to consult, contend with what was often a runaway market? The story of how the futures market developed and functioned at Dojima reveals the true nature of the “market economy.”

Lying in the Sea of Japan between Japan and the Korean Peninsula sits Takeshima, two islets surrounded by numerous rocks. At present, the issue of sovereignty over Takeshima remains contested between Japan and the Republic of Korea. Historically, the area has been the site of many interactions between Japanese and Koreans and is especially tied to the history of Japan’s southwestern San’in region. Shimane Prefecture native and teacher of regional history Sugihara Takashi brings this rich history into relief by tracing the many stories that unfolded in the region, from the hunting of sea lions on Takeshima to the peaceful coexistence of Japanese and Koreans living side by side on the nearby island of Ulleungdo. Takeshima and its history remain ever present in the hearts of the Japanese people and the story of this important region.

Nomads, farmers, and trade: world history was born where these elements intersected. In this reconceptualized view, respected Japanese historian OKAMOTO Takashi locates history’s crucible in the boundary zones between settled agriculturists and nomadic peoples, where the Silk Road emerged as an early engine of trade and culture. Okamoto presents a new historical narrative which overturns Eurocentric perceptions of history, boldly and clearly reconfiguring the structure of world history in terms of economic ebbs and flows. When Asian military forces took to horseback some three thousand years ago, commercial capital developed that linked remote regions, innovating technologies, increasing productivity, and eventually culminating in the Mongol Empire. Their control of the Silk Road connected them with Near Eastern empires at the road’s western terminus, enriching the Greek and Roman civilizations of the Mediterranean world. But as crucial trade routes moved from inland to the coast during the Age of Discovery, the center stage of history shifted to Europe, which evolved its own financial and navigational technologies to win the global economic game. Looking anew at history from this perspective forces a reconsideration of accepted notions from “Greco-Roman civilization,” the “European miracle,” and the “Great Divergence” to “Japan’s modernization.” Through his unique overview of the whole of Eurasia and the maritime realm, from ancient times to the present, the author reorients our view of Asia’s role in global history.

The histories of China, Korea, and Japan have been intimately intertwined for centuries. But of these three countries, it was Korea that occupied the pivotal geopolitical position. The Korean Peninsula shaped the dynamics of international interactions and relations in East Asia which, up until the start of the twentieth century, were underpinned by systems of order wholly removed from the sovereign state system we recognize as ubiquitous today. Contested Perceptions examines the coexistence of “neighborly relations” between Japan and Korea and “tributary relations” between Korea and the Qing dynasty from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, and Korean “tributary autonomy” in the late nineteenth century. It provides a cogent analysis of the differing perceptions that determined the success or failure of these past systems of order and their influence upon the balance of power in East Asia from the seventeenth century to modern times. Delving into the history of East Asian international relations, diplomacy, and power politics, this book elucidates the events that led to the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, and the conflicts of interest that have defined these nations up to the present day.

The Tokyo Trial, like the Nuremberg Trial, was unique as a judicial event. Presided over by eleven Allied judges, Japan’s wartime leaders were individually tried in an international court of justice for crimes against international law. After two years of hearings, a majority judgment found twenty-five of the accused guilty; seven were sentenced to death. However, factionalism amongst justices and competing political interests served to undermine the final judgment, widely criticized as “victors’ justice.” Some seventy years later, its legacy continues to inform international politics and polarize ideological debate. In this revised English edition of his 2008 book, Tokyo Saiban, winner in the History and Civilization category of the 30th Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities, eminent political scientist Dr. HIGURASHI Yoshinobu sets aside routine ideological approaches that have characterized study of the tribunal until now and focuses our attention on the engrossing political dynamics surrounding the Tokyo Trial and its current impacts. Drawing on exhaustive research into foreign policy documents and inter-ministerial correspondence, Higurashi traces the contours of diplomacy in the wake of World War II, revisiting the Tokyo Trial from the viewpoint of Japan’s postwar international relations to shed new light on an event unprecedented in world history.

Following its defeat in World War II, Japan was placed under the control of SCAP GHQ headed by General Douglas MacArthur. Initially the Occupation promoted policies of demilitarization and democratization. A new Japanese constitution which pursued pacifism was established. However, as the Cold War intensified, policies switched in the direction of economic recovery, and it was contended that Japan should take the anti-Communist pro-America path. In 1951,at the height of the Korean War, the San Francisco Peace Treaty and the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty were concluded as a fixed set. Winner of the 2015 Yomiuri Yoshino Sakuzo Prize for academic writing on politics, economics, and history, this book provides a wide view of the seven years of the Occupation of Japan which led to the “postwar system＂ that has continued into the twenty-first century.