Japan's Culture and Political-Economic System (POL 1006) POL 1006 Japan's Culture and Political-Economical System
Course Description
This course is designed to introduce students to Japanese society, history, politics, political-economy, and international role. It begins by explaining how Japan, and East Asia more generally, are having an increasing important global impact, including upon Europe.We explore Japanese popular culture, which enjoys increasing global popularity.We consider whether Japanese culture is ”unique,” or merely distinct.We examine various aspects of Japanese society and history, including new post-war cultures, and then move on to examine its contemporary political system and policy-making in areas such as welfare policy and technology policy.We consider the Japanese economic model that brought phenomenal growth in the early post-war decades, but which had sunk into stagnation by the 1990s, and examine how Japan is slowly reinventing its political-economy. Finally, we consider Japan’s international role as a great power, and its dinstinctive, but evolving, security strategy. |
