The State of Civil Society in Japan

Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 10/20/2003
EAN 9780521827300, ISBN10: 0521827302

Hardcover, 414 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

For all the obstacles that remain, civil society is burgeoning in Japan, and the idea of civil society is at the core of the current debate about how to reinvigorate the country. This book gathers the insights of American and Japanese scholars from the fields of political science, sociology, social psychology, and history to investigate the nature of associational life and the public sphere in Japan. It goes beyond assessing the condition of civil society to explore the role of the state in shaping civil society over time, and its broad, comparative framework is useful for thinking about civil society not just in Japan, but elsewhere in the contemporary world. Given its wealth of original research and the uniform strength of its individual chapters, this book will appeal to a broad audience of social scientists, practitioners, and policy-makers.

Introduction
Part I. Context
1. What is civil society? Frank Schwartz
2. From Meiji to Heisei
the state and civil society in Japan Sheldon Garon
3. Capitalism and civil society in postwar Japan
perspectives from intellectual history Andrew Barshay
Part II. The Associational Sphere
4. Japan's civil society organizations in comparative perspective Tsujinaka Yutaka
5. Molding Japanese civil society
state structured incentives and the patterning of civil society Robert Pekkanen
6. After Aum
religion and civil society in Japan Helen Hardacre
7. State-society partnerships in the Japanese welfare state Margarita Estevez-Abe
Part III. The Nonmarket Activities of Economic Actors
8. Redefining the conservative coalition
agriculture and small business in Japan Robert Bullock
9. The death of unions' associational life? Political and cultural aspects of enterprise unions Suzuki Akira
10. The struggle for an independent consumer society
consumer activism and the state's response in postwar Japan Patricia Maclachlan
Part IV. State-Civil Society Linkages
11. Media and the Internet in the development of civil society in Japan Laurie Freeman
12. A tale of two legal systems
prosecuting corruption in Japan and Italy David Johnson
Part V. Globalization and Value Change
13. Trust and social intelligence in Japan Yamagishi Toshio
14. Building global civil society from the outside in? Japan's development NGOs, the state, and international norms Kim Reimann
Conclusion
targeting by an activist state
Japan as a civil society model Susan Pharr.