Gerald L. Curtis

This must rank as one of the best books on Japanese politics by one of the best writers on Japanese politics.

The book narrates a strange time in Japanese politics. The 1990s were a time of turmoil and upheaval: the collapse of the "55" system, criticisms of the once lauded bureaucracy, the splintering of the LDP and the parade of new political parties. Curtis researches and explains these shifts with an expert eye, with a simultaneous focus on structure and agency. The book uses a theory of structure/agency where political actors work within a specific realm of opportunities.

As the book argued, the Japanese political landscape was characterized by cognitive dissonance: while a great number of Japanese still wanted to stick to the tired and true of the past, they were also plagued by a sense that if radical change didn’t occur disaster might eventually happen. The author calls this the politics of complacency: the public is in favor of change as long as it helps to reproduce the status quo.

Another essential thesis is that the Japanese state is refractive: “absorbing and responding to demands emanating from groups in civil society and from the electorate, but trying in the process to bend those demands into a shape that conforms as much as possible to the interest and the preferences of the managers of the state themselves” (p. 9; p. 129 ).

Even though the book is showing some age, I think it should still be on the Japan subject-matter expert's book shelf for a number of reasons: 1) it is a great model of how to do research on politics 2) it has insights on Japanese politics that will prove as relevant today 3) it's a great read, with many quotable passages.… (mehr)