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.”

The United States postwar occupation of Japan likes to boast of having given the Japanese freedom of expression and freedom of the press. True, it freed the Japanese press from many wartime constraints. But at the same time, it imposed a large number of new constraints, replacing wartime censorship by the Japanese government with postwar censorship by the American occupation authority. Even before the war ended, planning for the occupation included a censorship and public relations efforts that would work to “re-educate” the Japanese and fold them into the postwar American international order. Similar efforts were made in Germany, but the effort in Japan was far more sweeping and far more sustained. This book documents that history in detail with extensive reference to primary resources held in U.S. archives and elsewhere. Was the occupation successful in reshaping the Japanese mindset? Citing not only the postwar Constitution but also, among other things, the widespread belief in the Tokyo Trials’ validity, Eto argues doggedly that it was so successful that its pernicious influence persists even today. Yet the heart of this heavily researched book is its meticulous documentation of how this censorship was planned and enforced.

After the Meiji Restoration, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Russo-Japanese War, Japan found itself occupying a prominent position in the global arena. Komura Jutaro, whom Mutsu Munemitsu had chosen as his successor, served on the Katsu Taro cabinet and set to forging a plan for Japan’s continental development in opposition to Russia, considering the influence of the United States and Britain. Komura accurately judged that Japan had no other option than war with Russia, given his piercing insights into Russia’s intentions, and that recognition enabled the Empire of Japan to stay on the right track. All the other merits and demerits of Komura’s diplomacy are directly connected to the merits and demerits of the steps taken by the Empire of Japan that eventually led to the country’s defeat in World War II. Komura’s diplomacy thus calls into question Japan’s national strategy itself: consistently pursuing independent diplomacy instead of entrusting Japan’s fate to collaboration with the Anglo-American world and, in Asia, expanding Japan’s exclusive sphere of influence beyond the Korean Peninsula deep into the Asian continent.

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.

Languages change over time. No matter how hard we try to control and regulate them, they exist in a state of endless metamorphosis. This does not mean, though, that we should simply stand by and watch as language devolves into nonsense. What should we do, then? Recognizing the inevitability of change is a given, of course. But we must also navigate the delicate line between the pull of popular trends and the urge to cling blindly to the ways of the past. The ideal balance, Professor Nakanishi argues in this book, lies in being “one step behind the times,” which is the best approach for wielding all the charms of a language. Beautiful words have an ageless quality, regardless of when they first appeared in a language. The Japanese language testifies to that truth. This book introduces a balanced mix of new and old words that reflect the singular beauty of the Japanese language. The beautiful words of the Japanese language are not―as some people say―simply old, antiquated terms. Discerning beauty in a language requires more than having an antiquarian’s ear; it requires certain sensibilities and sensitivities. Only by submerging ourselves in a language can we perceive its splendid subtleties, and appreciate its true beauty. This book offers readers an opportunity to delve into to those nuances of Japanese, explore the language’s history, and savor its unique beauty.

The founder of judo, Kano Jigoro, is a highly revered figure amongst those who pursue the sport. Little is known, however, about his various other achievements, from how he laid out the foundation for sports in Japanese education to his immense devotion and commitment to bringing the Olympic Games to Japan. Born in 1860, Kano showed his brightness from a young age and studied hard from childhood. After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University, the most prestigious school, he embarked on a teaching career which eventually led him to become the headmaster of the Tokyo Higher Normal School for a total of twenty-three years. This was just one of the many roles he undertook; aside from this he was chairman of the Japan Amateur Sports Association and became the first Asian member on the International Olympic Committee. And all the while he never ceased to develop and promote his creation, judo. For the first time, this comprehensive biography written by a team of Kano experts and researchers sheds light on the many dimensions of the legendary figure. It depicts how he truly lived life to the fullest by living out his own words-seiryoku zen’yo and jita kyoei-the best practical use of one’s energies and putting one’s efforts to good use for the benefit of both oneself and society.

The Kwangtung Army’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931 was a clear demonstration of the military’s independence and the Japanese foreign policy establishment’s impotence and irrelevance. For the next 14 years, diplomats and others who sought to avert war on the Asian mainland and with the Western powers saw their efforts sidelined and undercut. Such is not, however, to imply such toilers-in-the-dark did not exist. They did, and this ambitious history chronicles that difficult time focusing on the lives of Shigemitsu Mamoru and Togo Shigenori. A career diplomat who brokered a ceasefire between the Imperial Japanese Army and the Chinese Kuomintang Army in 1932 and then a settlement of the Russo-Japanese border at Changkufeng Hill in 1938, Shigemitsu was aghast at the 1940 tripartite Pact (among Japan, Germany, and Italy) and its implications for Japan’s relations with the UK and the US. Despite―or perhaps because of―his opposition to the militarists’ policies, he was appointed Foreign Minister midway through the Pacific War, and it was in that capacity that he was caught up in the charade of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Much of Shigemitsu’s work was complemented by Togo’s, including efforts to better relations with the Soviet Union. Marginalized though he was, Togo had the distinction of being Foreign Minister both at the outbreak and at the end of the Pacific War, albeit with a long hiatus in the middle, and it was this distinction that brought him to the International Tribunal’s attention. Belying the standard image of a hundred million hearts beating as one, Japan had many distinguished figures who remained true to their principles even as they served the state during the long war years. This is thus both a history of personal turmoil and an insightful window on the Japan of that era.

The Constitution of Japan is often described as a pacifist constitution for its Article 9 renouncing war and foreswearing war potential. Although this is usually attributed to starry-eyed idealists and steely-eyed realists in the occupation, both of which wanted to ensure Japan did not again challenge America’s position, there is also a cast to be made for crediting Shidehara Kijuro (1872-1951). Indeed, the case becomes even stronger if we think of the Constitution not so much as pacifist but more as internationalist―as evidenced in the Preamble’s trusting in the justice and faith of the peace-loving peoples of the world and its belief that no nation is responsible to itself alone. For it was Shidehara who was the ultimate internationalist. Born to a middle-class family four years after the Meiji Restoration, he went to Tokyo Imperial University and from there to the civil service, ending up at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From there, history took him to a number of foreign capitals and historic international conferences on his way to the foreign ministership and after he became foreign minister. Serving as foreign minister under a succession of prime ministers, he developed and staunchly promoted what came to be called Shidehara diplomacy―a foreign policy stance of not intervening in China, respecting the Anglo-Japanese alliance, and adhering to what were put forward as universal values. Yet despite his steadfast championship, this internationalist stance was weakened by widespread discrimination against Japanese (e.g., in America’s immigration laws) and fatally wounded by the Kwangtung Army’s rogue aggression in China. He resigned as foreign minister in 1931, while retaining his seat in the House of Peers, and was tapped by the occupation to be Japan’s first postwar prime minister, putting him in a position to influence the Constitution’s drafting. Shidehara’s was a principled life engagingly recounted in this informative biography by one of Japan’s foremost diplomat-turned-historians.

Beginning with the drafting of Vietnam’s civil law in 1996, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has supported the “making of laws” in developing countries including Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. This is a field of cooperation unique to Japan, originating from its experience studying foreign legal systems during the Meiji Restoration. Today, Official Development Assistance (ODA) is considered one of the pillars of Japan’s rule of law promotion. JICA has collected documents relating to its 20 years of work, along with interviews with those involved in rule of law promotion from Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and more. Clashes over wariness towards foreigners and differences in understanding of legal terminology… This is a record of the obstacles overcome by the people of developing nations who wanted to draft their own national laws, and the Japanese lawyers who supported them, as well as their sincere efforts, struggles, and challenges. This is a recommended book for those interested in international cooperation, as well as those who want to know more about the rule of law promotion process.

“I wrote this book in the hope that readers will be able to save their own lives as well as those of the ones they love when an earthquake next strikes, so that the tragedy of March 11, 2011, would never be repeated.” ―Satoko Oki What our chatty planet teaches us Would you be surprised to hear that there are scientists who listen to the Earth? Yes, the Earth does talk in many different voices?the voice of the air, the voice of the sea, the voice of volcanoes, and the voice of the Earth. Seismologists listen to the voice of the Earth. We use high performance seismometers that do not miss the slightest muttering by the Earth that human ears cannot hear. That way, we can learn about what causes earthquakes and even what it is like inside the planet. Earthquakes occur because it is hot inside the planet?because the Earth is dynamic. We cannot escape earthquakes as long as we live on the Earth. But from listening to the planet, seismologists have discovered what causes earthquakes and how we can live with them to protect our lives.

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.

Focusing on the significance of the Greater East Asia policies promoted by Prime Minister SHIGEMITSU Mamoru during World War II-including the issues of approving independence for Burma and the Philippines as well as the liberation of French Indochina-Prof. HATANO Sumio sheds light on the formation and evolution of Japan's diplomacy in Asia. He then goes on to verify the meaning of what was held to be Japan's war aim-liberation of the people of Asia-and its impact on policies.

“A solution without a solution.” In 1965, a secret pact concluded between the leaders of Japan and South Korea quietly shelved the territorial dispute over the island of Takeshima (Dokdo), setting the course for normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Several well-known figures were active in the complex and convoluted political maneuvering and backroom negotiations that helped bring the pact to fruition. For the first time ever, this book-including personal accounts from those who were directly involved-reveals the painstaking work behind the scenes to mend the fraught relationship between Japan and South Korea by conceiving the most subtle of solutions. And yet the pact and all that it achieved would mysteriously be erased from history. How and why did this happen? Winner of the Asia Pacific Award, Japan, Korea, and the Takeshima Secret Pact is a fascinating look into the intricate process of mending diplomatic relations and the small island that was the center of it all.

Over the last half century, why has the relationship between Japan and China been so volatile that it keeps fluctuating between deteriorating and improving? Why does criticism of Japan over historical issues repeatedly converge and reemerge? The reason lies in the constant power struggles taking place inside the Chinese Communist Party itself. An examination of various cases and documents dating from the period of normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China from the1970s to the present day will clarify how the Chinese political system is closely related to its diplomatic policies towards Japan.

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.

It was the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, which had a particularly profound impact on my home prefecture of Fukushima, that made me painfully aware of the need to live life as it comes, without fixed goals, which tend to be imperfect and grounded in desire. This book consists of a selection of short essays penned by GEN’YU Sokyu, chief priest at a Zen temple in Fukushima Prefecture. Beginning in April 2012, he began writing a newspaper column that ran for seven and a half years. Embracing the ever-changing nature of the world, he took up a wide range of topics inspired by his daily activities and experiences, including events in post-disaster Fukushima, temple renovation and soil improvement, Japanese customs, observations about nature, and encounters with people from all walks of life. With a mindfulness sometimes accompanied by a wry sense of humor, he reflects upon the surprises those events and encounters brought and what they taught him. His insightful essays are sprinkled with wisdom on how we should cope with life and death, derived from Buddhist and Taoist teachings. He encourages each of us to follow our mind as it changes according to the circumstances of the moment; the result will be experiences far more valuable than the simple achievement of our initial plans.

The year was 2002- the 30th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations but also a time when relations grew sharply frostier over the prime minister's visit to Yasukuni Shrine. Into this fray dropped Ma Licheng's “New Thinking on Relations with Japan＂, triggering a storm of debate in both China and Japan. Even now, more than a decade after the essay's publication, the New Thinking continues to have a major influence on policy discussions. While Sino-Japanese relations hit new turbulence over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in 2012,the author remains optimistic that the bilateral issues can be resolved rationally and peacefully. Referencing the durability of the postwar peace between France an Germany, he argues that - for their own and the international community's sake, China and Japan can and must find ways to overcome their antagonisms and live in peace as complementary neighbors.

The Cold War ended more than thirty years ago, but the world-and within it, the countries of Asia and the Pacific-still struggles to establish a peaceful and prosperous community of nations. Many midsized and smaller states, caught in the webs of superpower rivalry, have not felt their interests adequately represented by existing alliances and international organizations. This volume envisions an alternative: a Western Pacific Union (WPU), conceived as a loosely integrated community of nations stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific, that would counterbalance superpower dominance and give greater agency in global affairs to its members by coordinating their voices and interests. The initiative for this proposal comes from Japan, with Dr. KITAOKA Shinichi, former ambassador to the United Nations and former president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, leading a team of established scholars, younger researchers, and specialists in articulating the concept of the WPU and dissecting the challenges facing its realization. The core of the book is a country-by-country treatment of the recent history and international relations of each potential member state and the prospects for its successful involvement in this nascent community of nations. Our world is increasingly integrated through advanced technologies and global commerce, but in many ways still remains fractious and divided. Finding peaceful, equitable, sustainable solutions to the issues confronting humanity demands new ideas and strategies. This volume addresses these needs with a new geopolitical vision for Asia and the Pacific.

The Japan-US Security Treaty was first signed in 1951, coinciding with the end of Allied occupation and Japan’s recovery of independence in the early postwar era, and subsequently revised in 1960 to correct various inadequacies and alleviate a sense of inequality felt on the Japanese side. Its basic structure, namely providing bases in exchange for the guarantee of US security of Japan, however, remains unchanged. This English edition of diplomatic historian SAKAMOTO Kazuya’s highly acclaimed Nichi-Bei domei no kizuna (The Bonds of the Japan-US Alliance; 2000, rev. ed. 2020), winner of the 22nd Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities, carefully depicts the sensitive negotiations and diplomatic finesse behind the establishment and revision of the Japan-US Security Treaty, highlighting the challenges experienced by the two countries to promote mutuality then and later. Drawing on previously undisclosed confidential documents and new research developments on the issue of secret agreements, which were brought to light during the Ministry of Foreign Affairs investigation in 2009-10, the author added a new chapter with updated notes for his revised 2020 edition. Examining the far-reaching implications of these new historical materials, he puts forward the pressing question: What should be the future of Japan-US security cooperation?

This book traces the past 150 years of Japan’s diplomatic history, focusing on the thoughts and actions of the leaders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since the ministry’s establishment in 1869. It includes a discussion of the last fifteen years of the Edo period, beginning with the arrival of Commodore Perry in 1854. Since the Meiji era, Japan’s foreign policy has been informed by its response to that “confrontation from the West.” This foreign policy has been largely based on “accommodation diplomacy” (also called responsive diplomacy). Japan has designed its diplomatic response with an eye to its own foreign policy goals, applying the metric of what might be feasible more than what might be desirable. In “accommodation diplomacy,” the international issues, international order, and the rules of the game are not defined. In that sense, there has been no all-encompassing strategy behind Japan’s foreign policy. Instead, Japan has regarded the international situation simply, as a set of facts. It has sought to maximize the benefits to itself while minimizing risk. Its foreign policy has been an attempt to solve this conundrum through accommodation. Reflective of the times, this has required an abundance of creativity. Japan has needed to be both pragmatic and forward-thinking in its response to changes in the international environment. In the postwar period, as Japan aimed to elevate its standing in the competition-driven international environment, its foreign policy can be understood as an extension of the way it had comported itself since the Meiji era: emphasizing cooperation and coordination with other nations while responding to changes in the international environment.

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.

From 1910 to 1945,Korea was a colony of Imperial Japan. Its governance has been described politically in terms of harsh oppression and economically as exploitation and impoverishment. Certainly, there were many problems with Japanese rule in Korea, but how accurate are those claims? What is the connection between the postwar development of South Korea and the socialist regime in North Korea? This book focuses on economic issues, sticks to positivism, and depicts the reality and transformation of Korea during the period of Japanese control.

Sino-Japanese relations were seriously rattled in September 2010 when a Chinese fishing boat rammed a Japanese Coast Guard patrol ship in Japanese waters off the Senkaku Islands. This was compounded in April 2012 when Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro announced that he planned to buy the islands and added, “if this means war with China, so be it.” Alarmed at the prospect of Ishihara owning the islands, Democratic Party of Japan prime minister Noda Yoshihiko moved to see if there was some way the government could buy them instead, even knowing this would be seen as nationalization. Top officials in foreign policy, defense, and other areas met at Kantei (officially the Prime Minister’s Official Residence, but actually his offices) to find an out that would pre-empt Ishihara without provoking China (which also claimed the islands). This book tells the gripping story of what happened and why.

Life is short and transient. The feeling that this evokes is called mujokan in Japanese. Rather than falling into the despair that is so prevalent in the present day, mujokan allows one to accept transience proactively as a sign of vibrant life. In this book Takeuchi Seiichi examines this view of life from the perspectives of philosophy, literature, art, and religion. He delves into the Japanese concepts of grief and pain, life and death, reaching to the very core of the Japanese spirit. This book presents a full record of Takeuchi’s valedictory lectures in commemoration of his retirement from the University of Tokyo.

Yoshida Shigeru is widely regarded as a pivotal figure in early postwar Japanese history―someone who guided the nation through those difficult years with a clear vision and a firm hand. Yet much of his success, this book argues, was mandated by circumstances, and he was more a practical politician than an ideologue wedded to any particular “ism”. Particularly lauded by Yoshida admirers are his adroit fending off of pressures to remilitarize, including during the Korean War years, and his accompanying focus on economic recovery as the nation struggled to get back on its feet. Yet the decision not to rearm had already been made in the postwar Constitution’s Article 9, and Yoshida was more affirming Occupation policy than breaking new ground. Indeed, his policy pronouncements in this area largely channeled MacArthur’s thinking throughout SCAP’s reign. Pushing that thought one step further, Ambassador Okazaki contends that the acceptance of Article 9 was part of a grand bargain with MacArthur: Japan would forsake rearmament and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East would not put the Emperor in the dock for war crimes. Taking issue with the conventional wisdom, Okazaki further maintains that many Occupation policies (e.g., women’s suffrage and agrarian reform) would have been adopted in the course of building upon prewar democratization initiatives even were there no Occupation. Significantly, these reforms, unlike zaibatsu dissolution and the purge, for example, were not rescinded once Japan regained its independence in 1952. Pulling together testimony from a wide variety of informed sources, this solidly argued treatise roundly rejects the Tokyo Trials, both their conduct and their verdicts, and paints a picture of Japan laboring under a capricious autocracy in the Occupation years. This is an insightful work that demands serious consideration by everyone interested in Japan past, present, and future.

Remnants of Days Past, by Kyoji Watanabe, is an epic journey into Japan’s past. It is a comprehensive look at the Tokugawa rule and the Edo period, an age in which the civilization of “Old Japan” was still on display and which, for better or worse, ceased to exist with the advent of modernization. Watanabe covers in great detail several topics pertaining to this civilization, including the status and position of the various social classes, views of women and children, attitudes towards sex, labor, and the body and religious beliefs, as well as the unique cosmology behind this civilization. Watanabe makes use of a number of works written by foreign observers who visited Japan from the end of the Edo period to the beginning of the Meiji to support his views. As the author writes in the book, “What is important in my mind is the reality that the civilization of ‘Old Japan’ developed through a universal desire, as well as the ideas behind this desire, to make it as comfortable as possible for human existence.” This is a massive work that takes an in-depth look at what modern Japan has lost.

The passing of Emperor Sh-owa marked the end of an era―an era memorable in both war and peace. As is the custom, the new emperor’s reign was given a new name, in this case “Heisei,” but this did not mean a reset on the international stage. The persistent diplomatic issues remained, and, furthermore, new issues arose. Promoting global peace and stability, preventing natural disasters, relations with China, regional cooperation, Japan’s role in the international order are just some of the many outstanding issues. How did Japan approach them and deal with them? What was accomplished and what still needs to be done? Given the issues’ paramount importance for both Japan and the world at large, this anthology brings together influential essays published by five of Japan’s leading scholars during the period.