Crisis Narratives, Institutional Change, and the Transformation of the Japanese State

Description

Mired in national crises since the early 1990s, Japan has had to respond to a rapid population decline; the Asian and global financial crises; the 2011 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear meltdown; the COVID-19 pandemic; China’s economic rise; threats from North Korea; and massive public debt. In Crisis Narratives, Institutional Change, and the Transformation of the Japanese State, established specialists in a variety of areas use a coherent set of methodologies, aligning their sociological, public policy, and political science and international relations perspectives, to account for discrepancies between official rhetoric and policy practice and actual perceptions of decline and crisis in contemporary Japan. Each chapter focuses on a distinct policy field to gauge the effectiveness and the implications of political responses through an analysis of how crises are narrated and used to justify policy interventions. Transcending boundaries between issue areas and domestic and international politics, these essays paint a dynamic picture of the contested but changing nature of social, economic, and, ultimately political institutions as they constitute the transforming Japanese state.
Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Conventions

Introduction: Crisis Narratives, Institutional Change, and the Transformation of the Japanese State
Christian Wirth and Sebastian Maslow

Part I: Narrating Japan's Social Crisis

1. Japan's Melting Core: Social Frames and Political Crisis Narratives of Rising Inequalities
David Chiavacci

2. Authoritarian Populism in Everyday Life: The Discursive Politics of Demographic and Lifestyle Changes in Japan
Hiroko Takeda

3. Save Our Students? Shifting Subjects of Higher Education Crisis in Japan
Jeremy Breaden

Part II: Narrating Japan's Political and Economic Crises

4. A Crisis of Democracy: Civil Society and Energy Politics Before and After the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
Koichi Hasegawa

5. From Leader to Laggard? Crisis Narratives and Structural Reform in Japanese Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy
Iris Wieczorek

6. Contradiction and Discontent in Japan: Abenomics and the Failing Politics of Economic Reform
Saori Shibata

Part III: Narrating Japan's National Security Crisis

7. "Failures" and "Crises" in Japanese Foreign Policy: The Democratic Party of Japan's Rule 2009–2012
Paul O'Shea

8. From Ashes to New: The Delegitimization and Comeback of Japan's Official Development Assistance
Raymond Yamamoto

9. A State of Crisis: North Korean Missiles, Abductions, and the Transformation of Postwar Japan
Ra Mason and Sebastian Maslow

10. "The World Is Marveling at Japan!" Japanese Strategies to Avoid its "Crisis of Confidence"
Shogo Suzuki

Conclusion: Narrating Japan's Crisis, Narrating Japan's Rebirth
Sebastian Maslow and Christian Wirth

Contributors
Index

Sujets

• National
• Central
• Japan
• History of Asia
• 20th century
• 21st century

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438486109
• Langue: English

Extrait

Crisis Narratives, Institutional Change, and the Transformation of the Japanese State
Crisis Narratives, Institutional Change, and the Transformation of the Japanese State
Edited by
Sebastian Maslow and Christian Wirth
Cover photo: iStock by Getty Images.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2021 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Maslow, Sebastian, editor | Wirth, Christian, editor.
Title: Crisis narratives, institutional change, and the transformation of the Japanese state / edited by Sebastian Maslow and Christian Wirth.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: ISBN 9781438486093 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438486109 (ebook)
Further information is available at the Library of Congress.
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For Hannah and Junko and Jérôme and Yukiyo
Contents
Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Conventions
Introduction: Crisis Narratives, Institutional Change, and the Transformation of the Japanese State
Christian Wirth and Sebastian Maslow
Part I Narrating Japan’s Social Crisis
1 Japan’s Melting Core: Social Frames and Political Crisis Narratives of Rising Inequalities
David Chiavacci
2 Authoritarian Populism in Everyday Life: The Discursive Politics of Demographic and Lifestyle Changes in Japan
Hiroko Takeda
3 Save Our Students? Shifting Subjects of Higher Education Crisis in Japan
Jeremy Breaden
Part II Narrating Japan’s Political and Economic Crises
4 A Crisis of Democracy: Civil Society and Energy Politics Before and After the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
Koichi Hasegawa
5 From Leader to Laggard? Crisis Narratives and Structural Reform in Japanese Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy
Iris Wieczorek
6 Contradiction and Discontent in Japan: Abenomics and the Failing Politics of Economic Reform
Saori Shibata
Part III Narrating Japan’s National Security Crisis
7 “Failures” and “Crises” in Japanese Foreign Policy: The Democratic Party of Japan’s Rule 2009–2012
Paul O’Shea
8 From Ashes to New: The Delegitimization and Comeback of Japan’s Official Development Assistance
Raymond Yamamoto
9 A State of Crisis: North Korean Missiles, Abductions, and the Transformation of Postwar Japan
Ra Mason and Sebastian Maslow
10 “The World Is Marveling at Japan!” Japanese Strategies to Avoid its “Crisis of Confidence”
Shogo Suzuki
Conclusion: Narrating Japan’s Crisis, Narrating Japan’s Rebirth
Sebastian Maslow and Christian Wirth
Contributors
Index
Illustrations
Figures
1.1 Relative mobility in Japan, 1955–2015
1.2 Long-term average Gini coefficient change in advanced industrial countries
1.3 Wage inequality increase of top-10% versus bottom-90%
1.4 Long-term average growth of median real income in advanced industrial countries
1.5 Social mobility in Japan, 1955–2015
1.6 Japan’s ideal society, 1999–2015
1.7 Average monthly pocket money of Japanese Salarymen, 1995–2020
2.1 Development of Japan’s total fertility rate
3.1 Higher education entrance rates, 1985–2015
3.2 Eighteen-year-old (university entrance age) population in Japan
6.1 The popularity of the Abe government, 2012–2020
8.1 Japan’s ODA budget
8.2 Japanese public support of ODA
9.1 Public opinion on Japan’s relations with North Korea, 2000–2020
Tables
1.1 Japan’s political-economic models of growth and equality
2.1 The development of family and gender policies in Japan, 1990–2016
3.1 Japan’s universities, 2000 and 2018
Preface and Acknowledgments
The initial idea for this edited volume emerged in early 2016. At the time, we both worked at Tohoku University and witnessed firsthand the ongoing official and civil society efforts to reconstruct the physical and social infrastructure that the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdowns of March 11, 2011, had destroyed.
Large photo exhibitions at highly frequented public spaces in Sendai and Tokyo told the story of hope and successful common efforts of reconstruction. These local narratives resonated with the narratives of revitalizing Japan’s rural areas, and clearly linked to long-standing debates about Japan’s social, economic and political situation and trajectory. Soon after the tsunami struck, “3.11” had become imbued with meaning far beyond the disaster and the directly affected Tohoku region. It had become a catch-all frame for narrating Japan’s most severe postwar crisis, including the possibilities and hopes for decisive change to end Japan’s “lost decades.” That is, the historical mission of reconstructing Japan as a whole—be it to make Japan “normal” again as conservative circles had long endeavored, or simply to return to economic growth and shared prosperity.
However, contemplating our personal experiences of witnessing the triple disaster in Sendai and Tokyo, respectively, we were intrigued by the contrast of decisive action taken in some areas, and the lagging responses we saw in others. Several years into the post-3.11 reconstruction effort, devastated areas had been cleared, partially rebuilt, and protected with new, massive concrete breakwaters. But while 3.11, not least due to deliberate official efforts, no longer served as frame for describing the state of the nation, the crisis continued in its localized form. News about radioactive leaks at Fukushima kept appearing; thousands still lived in temporary housing, and on the streets of Sendai volunteers kept collecting donations that would enable them to continue searching for missing people and assisting surviving disaster victims. Tohoku’s major newspaper kept on listing the numbers of missing and dead people from the disaster on its frontpage. A decade after 3.11, these memories of personal loss, and of personal and national recovery, seem in danger of being eclipsed. Japan is battling the severe COVID-19 pandemic and the national crisis, social, economic and political, is far from over. Thus, it is timely to put the current and recent crises into a broader historical context.
Under the banner of the “lost decades,” scholars and policymakers have long argued about the causes of and remedies for Japan’s malaise. There is much excellent scholarship both on the causes of Japan’s social and economic crises and on the politics of framing Japan’s 3.11. But these accounts require updating. And as they usually cover specific issue areas, we also feel that there is a need for connecting them to broader historical and political developments. Thus, it is quite clear that no single perspective, disciplinary or in terms of issue area, can capture the multifaceted social, economic, and political transformations at hand. The remedy, we are convinced, lies in adopting a more critical and thus more incisive methodological perspective to cover a range of issue areas that are normally not considered as co-constitutive parts of an integral whole. Looking back at three decades of “national crises,” how, then, has Japan been coping? Has this elevated sense of “crisis” resulted in fundamental change of the Japanese state?
In 2012, Abe Shinzō led his Liberal Democratic Party back to power, as he pledged to “take back Japan” from the prolonged crisis allegedly caused by the nation’s postwar regime. In 2020, Abe became modern Japan’s longest-serving prime minister before suddenly resigning after almost eight years in office. During this tenure, he had consistently called for decisive reforms to end the compound “national crises” in form of military weakness in international affairs, economic stagnation, and rapid demographic decline and labor shortage. Abe restored political stability and enabled Japan to play a proactive role internationally. Yet the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, in line with the 1964 Tokyo Olympics envisioned to become a powerful symbol for the national “rebirth,” had to be postponed amidst the COVID-19 crisis. The impact of the pandemic also thwarted plans for the country’s economic recovery, and ever-growing public debt further deepened concerns over the sustainability of social welfare institutions and social disparities. Moreover, spiking numbers of infected and deceased people have, once again, triggered debates over the political leadership’s ability to manage national crises. Thus, ten years after the March 2011 triple disaster, the sense of “national crisis” and decline has not vanished from public debate. To the contrary, it has become more salient than ever. So has the urgency for scholarly debate. In this vein, we hope that this volume will stimulat