The State of the Japanese State

The State of the Japanese State

Contested Identity, Direction and Role

In this his latest work, Gavan McCormack argues that Abe Shinzo’s efforts to re-engineer the Japanese state may fail, but his radicalism continues to shake the country and will have consequences not easy now to predict. The significance of this book will be widely recognized, particularly by those researching contemporary world politics, international relations and the history of modern Japan. McCormack here revisits and reassesses his previous formulations of Japan as construction state (doken kokka), client state (zokkoku), constitutional pacifist state, and colonial state (especially in its relationship to Okinawa). He adds a further chapter on what he calls the ‘rampant state’, that outlines the increasingly authoritarian or ikkyo (one strong) turn of the Abe government in the fifth year of its second term. And he critically addresses the Abe agenda for constitutional revision.
  • Cover
  • Half Title
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Contents
  • Preface
  • Chapter One: The Improbable Package
    • The Improbable Package – Imperial, Pacifist, Democratic
    • Peace, Asia, and Article 9
    • San Francisco and “Normalization”
    • Abe 1: 1993–2007
    • Abe 2: 2012–2016
    • Abe 3: 2017–2018
  • Chapter Two: The Client State
    • Poodle Powers
    • Servility
    • Chalenging Clientelism, 2005–2010
    • Positive Pacifism
    • Japan the Beautiful
  • Chapter Three: Okinawa – The Client State’s Client State
    • Japan in the East [China] Sea
    • Inclusion/Exclusion, and Deceit
    • An “Okinawan Way”
    • “Kenpakusho” and “All Okinawa”
    • The Enigmatic Governor
    • Court Proceedings
    • The Experts’ Report, 2015
    • Wakai/Conciliation, 2016
    • Speed Trial, 2016
    • State of Play, 2017–2018
  • Chapter Four: Okinawa – State Violence and Civic Resistance
    • Public Enemy Number One
    • Civil Suits
    • Security
    • Struggle without End
    • Table: Japan vs Okinawa, 1995–2018
  • Chapter Five: Around the East [China] Sea
    • China
    • North Korea
      • Rogue Regime
      • North Korea “as it is”
      • On Global Tables
      • Rehearsing Invasion
      • Sanctions and Law
    • Russia and the Putin Plan
    • South-Western Fro ntier Isla nds – Yo naguni,Miyako, and Ishigaki
    • Mage Island
    • Senkaku/Diaoyu
    • Communities
  • Chapter Six: The Construction State
    • Resilience
    • Sustainability
    • The Nuclear State
    • The Ever Faster State
    • War and Gambling
  • Chapter Seven: The Constitutional State
    • Popular Sovereignty and Symbolic Emperor
    • Revision Agendas
      • I: Cold War era
      • II: LDP, 2012
      • III: Abe, 2014–2017
      • Emperor vs Prime Minister
      • Unresolved Contradictions
  • Chapter Eight: The Rampant State
    • Ikkyo – “One Strong”
    • Moritomo Gakuen
    • Kake Gakuen Veterinary Colege
    • Conspiracy
    • Secrets
    • Abe Triumphant, October 2017
  • Chapter Nine: Conclusion
  • Afterword
  • Index
  • Back Cover

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