1. Japan after 1945
March 26, 2015

2. Review How did Deng Xiaoping change the Chinese economy?
What happened in Beijing in June, 1989?
What are the major foreign policy issues facing China today?
Is the PRC a communist country?

3. Japan after 1945 How did Japan change after 1945?
How did Japan democratize?
How did it’s economy grow rapidly, then stagnate?
Social aspects of post-war Japan

4. Japan’s defeat and the US Occupation
“Endure the unendurable” Emperor’s radio message (Aug, 1945)
The Occupation, (Ebrey, )
SCAP and Douglas MacArthur

5. Changes Demilitarization War crimes trial: victor’s justice
Purged officials involved in war (and re-purge)
MacArthur Constitution (1947)
Drafted in 6 days!
Popular sovereignty
Article 9 (war renunciation clause)
The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation…Land, sea, and air forces will never be maintained
Was MacArthur a pacifist?
Self-Defense Force later

6. What happened to the emperor?

7. MacArthur’s feats Land reform
Breakup of landlord grips on rural society
Barrington Moore’s fascist model vs democratic model
Civil, social, and political rights
New civil and criminal laws
Equality of the sexes (women’s voting right) “Vote received from MacArthur”
Freedom of assembly, speech, press, religion
Parliamentary democracy
State Shinto abolished
“Democracy from above”, “Revolution from above”
Was MacArthur Asia’s greatest revolutionary?

8. Governance after Occupation
Dominance of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 1955
Party politics with oppositions
Factions within the LDP (faction bosses)
Strong bureaucracy
Protest and political activism in 1960s
Apathy toward politics, mistrust of politicians

9. Is Japan a democracy?
A political system grounded in the recognition of the legitimacy of conflicts of interests. Democracy provides mechanisms such as elections for the peaceful resolution of such conflicts. There also must be a real possibility for citizens to influence policy and even to form opposition parties that can themselves someday run the government. Many scholars withhold the label “democracy” from a country that has not experienced two peaceful transfers of power in a row.

10. Economic growth Over 10% annual economic growth from 1950 to 1971
How did that happen?
Korean war
Defense pact with the US; Cold War
Administrative aid (Bureaucratic guidance)
Entrepreneurial spirit
Domestic thirst for consumption and growth

11. “Growth and progress”, the spirit of the 60s and 70s
Roaring 80s
Decline after the 90s, and the “lost twenty years”
Bubble burst
Mediocre leaders, and political culture
Competition in Asia

12. Society “Salaryman” and the corporate culture
Office ladies, housewives

13. Social issues “All middle class” mentality to wealth inequality
Gender role and pay gap
Discriminated minorities
Burakumin
Koreans
Okinawans
Tensions with Korea, China
Rocks and islands, War and history

14. Varieties of nationalism and visions
Right-wing gangs
Hawkish politicians, Revisionists historians
“Net right wingers”
Some radical religious groups (not necessarily nationalistic)
More modest forms of nationalism
Sports, “Samurai Japan”
“Petit nationalism”
Pacifism (Article 9)
J-pop (Southern All Stars, “Peace and highlight”, 2013)