Japan Viewed from Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Yoneyuki Sugita is professor of history at Osaka University.

This [is an] eminently readable collection. . . .The introduction and the fourteen chapters are of a consistently high quality and Sugita should be complimented for bringing together in one volume such a high level of scholarship. . . .Written clearly, of a high standard, mixing empirical and analytical parts, the individual chapters and the volume as a whole are to be very welcomed. Readers from a variety of academic disciplines and interested parties should benefit from it greatly.

• Part I: Is This Really Globalization? Chapter 1: Borders of ‘American Citizens’ Created in a More Globalized World: The Significance of the Transpacific Steamship Route for Asian Immigration to the Unites States in the Late 19th Century, Yuki OoiChapter 2: Symbiotic Relationship between Japan’s Status in the World and Changes in the Nature of Medical Insurances from the 1920s to the Early 1940s, Yoneyuki SugitaChapter 3: Japanese Identity in a Globalized World: “Anti-Japanism” and Discursive Struggle, Karl GustafssonChapter 4: From “Funeral” to “Engaged” Buddhism: Death Rites and Postwar Japanese Social Identity, Steven HeineChapter 5: The Obama 'Pivot' to Asia in the Context of American Hegemony, Bruce CumingsPart II: Whither Japan’s Relations with Asia?Chapter 6: The Young East: Negotiating Japan’s place in the world through East Asian Buddhism, Judith SnodgrassChapter 7: Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and Japan: Dispute Settlement and Trade Security, John PadenChapter 8: Popular Culture Regionalization in East Asia and What this Means to Japan, Nissim OtmazginChapter 9: Myanmar: the Last Frontier for Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Southeast Asia, Marie SöderbergChapter 10: Recalibrating Sino-Japanese Relations for a Better Future: Implications of Japan’s Joint Anti-Piracy Operations in the Gulf of Aden with China, Victor TeoPart III: Do U.S.–Japan Relations Still Matter? Chapter 11: The Unforeseen Effects of the American Intervention: The Political Purge Program and the Making of Japan's Postwar Leadership, Juha SaunavaaraChapter 12: A Comparative Analysis of the Relationship between Learning Environments and Educational Performance in Japan and the United States, Christopher Weiss, Emma García, and Gerard Torrats-EspinosaChapter 13: Privatizing Foreign Policy: The Role of Business Executives in U.S.–Japan Economic Relations, Toru OgaChapter 14: Abolition of Japan’s Nuclear Power Plants? Analysis from a Historical Perspective on Early Cold War, 1945–1955, Mayako Shimahoto