OSAKA UNIVERSITY SHORT-TERM STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM _

05s-04
POLITICS IN MODERN JAPAN

Kaoru KURUSU (School of International Public Policy)

Objective
  This course will examine issues of Westernization and industrialization in modern Japan covering the period from the Meiji Restoration to establishment of the 1955 political system. It will consider how Japan's position in the international system has changed during the process of modernization. It will also consider how Japanese society responded to such rapid developments. Issues to be discussed include the Meiji government's policy of industrialization, people's rights movements, Taisho democracy, the impact of wars Japan fought, and the establishment of new constitution and political system after the defeat at World War II.

Textbook and Reference Books
Mikiso Hane, Modern Japan, Perceus Books, 3rd ed., 2001.

Lecture Outline
Introduction: Review of sakoku (closed door policy) and bakuhan regime
1. The Meiji Restoration
2. National Defense and toward "Civilized" Country
3. Jiyu Minken Undo (People's Rights Movement) vs. state rights
4. The Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)
5. World War I and Americanization of Japan
6. Taisho Democracy
7. The Washington Conference (1921-2) and The London Conference (1930)
8. The Japanese Imperial Army's Adventurism and the idea of Transcendence of Modernity
9. Road to the Pacific War
10. Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Japan's Struggle to End the Pacific War
11. Origins and Policies of the U.S. Occupation
12. The Occupation Era and a new Japanese Constitution
13. Japanese Rearmament and Anti-Americanism
14. The Yoshida Doctrine and the San Francisco Peace Treaty
15. Foundation of the 1955 system and Rapid Economic Growth

Grading
Evaluated based on two take-home exams.