Tuesday 21 February 2006
6:00pm – 8:00pm
The Left in the Shaping of Japanese Democracy Essays in Honour of J. A. A. Stockwin
Daiwa Foundation Japan House
Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Edited by Rikki Kersten and David Williams
Published by Routledge
Leftist thought and activism stands as a defining force in the articulation of political culture and policy in modern Japan. Operating from the periphery of formal political power for the most part, the Japanese Left has had an impact that extends far beyond its limited success at the ballot box. The essays that compose this Oxford Festschrift range over a wide set of themes including the tragic careers of two prewar left-wing martyrs (Christopher Goto-Jones); Hisashi Asō, the great Socialist apostate (Rikki Kersten); the Left’s evasion of constitutional sovereignty (Williams); the rise and fall of Nikkyō-sō (Robert W. Aspinall); the Left’s impact on privatization and bureaucratic reform (Koichi Nakano); the demise of parliamentary Socialism (Sarah Hyde); the Left’s recent embrace of free market principles (Leonard J Schoppa); critical Japan studies and American empire since 9/11 (David Williams); and history’s final judgment on the fate of this great political movement (Junichi Banno).
About the contributors
Professor J A A Stockwin
Professor J A A Stockwin is Emeritus Fellow of St. Antony’s College and the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies University of Oxford. His recent publications include Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Japan (Routledge 2003).
Professor Rikki Kersten
Professor Rikki Kersten is Professor of Modern Japanese Studies, University of Leiden. She has published widely on the history of ideas and political thought in Japan, and she is the editor of the Routledge/Leiden series on Modern East Asian Politics and History.
Dr David Williams
Dr David Williams, one of Europe’s leading thinkers on modern Japan, is the author of Japan: Beyond the End of History, Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science and Defending Japan’s Pacific War, all published by Routledge. He has taught at Oxford, Sheffield and Cardiff Universities.