HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY JAPAN

This is one of the complementary courses within the "Japan" curriculum of the master degree programme in "Lingue, economie e istituzioni dell'Asia e dell'Africa Mediterranea".
The course contributes to the attainment of the teaching goals of the programme in the area of humanities. It aims at providing the knowledge and critical tools required to understand the political system of contemporary Japan. The focus is on structural developments since the 1990s.

Knowledge and understanding:
- to know and understand Japan’s contemporary political system
- to acquire knowledge of methodology for historical research
- to acquire the tools needed to understand in historical perspective facts and processes analyzed in other teachings from different points of view (e.g. economic, legal)

Applying knowledge and understanding:
- to cope with the historiographical themes in an autonomous way, using arguments that are critically sound
- to recognize mid-/long-term processes in recent political developments

Making judgements:
- to produce critical judgments on issues discussed in the course, using arguments that are critically sound
- to examine critically various types of sources and to navigate the specialized bibliography
- to analyze current politics beyond the level of news reporting

Communication:
- to express and re-elaborate the contents of the program in oral and written form, in a synthetic and effective way. To formulate valid judgments in the field of history, without resorting to automatism and oversimplification resulting from a mnemonic study

Lifelong learning skills:
- to know how to take notes in an effective way
- to know how to critically integrate the study of different materials (books, academic articles, resources from the internet)
- to be able to independently study materials and topics not covered during the lectures
- to refine one's ability to study materials in English
- to refine one's ability to use the online teaching platform

Adequate knowledge of Japanese political history in the contemporary period (as taught in History of Japan, part 2)

Shifting balances: from the "'55 system" to bipolar competition / Election reform and its consequences / Party organization: leadership, governing bodies, constituencies / Economic policy: structural reforms versus vested interests / Foreign policy since the end of the Cold War

-Brown, James D.J.; Jeff Kingston (eds) (2018). Japan’s Foreign Relations in Asia. Abingdon, New York: Routledge. [Ch. 1-4, 9-12, 14, 16, 18]
-Ito, Takeshi; Masako Suginohara (2014). “Flocking Together? The Breakdown and Revival of Political Clientelism in Italy and Japan”. In Silvio Beretta, Axel Berkofsky, Fabio Rugge (eds.), Italy and Japan: How Similar Are They?. Milano: Springer, pp. 137-160.
-Giannetti, Daniela; Bernard Grofman; Steven R. Reed (2014). “Studying Electoral Engineering via a Double Barrelled Natural Experiment: Comparing the Long Run Consequences of 1990s Electoral Reform in Italy and Japan”. In Silvio Beretta; Axel Berkofsky; Fabio Rugge (eds.), Italy and Japan: How Similar Are They?. Milano: Springer, pp. 161-182
-Krauss Ellis S.; Robert J. Pekkanen. 2011. The Rise and Fall of Japan's LDP. Political Party Organizations as Historical Institutions. Ithaca, London: Cornell University Press. [tutto]
-Kushida, Kenji E; Phillip Y. Lipscy (eds). 2013. Japan under the DPJ: The Politics of Transition and Governance. Stanford: Asia-Pacific Research Center. [Ch. 1, 3, 4, 13]
-Lechevalier, Sébastien (ed.) (2014) [2011]. The Great Transformation of Japanese Capitalism. Abingdon, New York: Routledge. [Introduction, Ch. 1, 4, 7, Conclusion]
-McCall Rosenbluth, Francis; Michael F. Thies. 2010. Japan Transformed: Political Change and Economic Restructuring. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. [Ch. 4-8, Conclusions]

Students will receive suggestions for further reading (non mandatory for the final examination) during the course

PowerPoint presentation in class, final written exam (1 hour)

Evaluation: presentation in class and written test (three questions based on the required readings).
Students who do not attend lessons will inform the instructor at the start of the semester. A written report on an assigned topic will substitute the presentation.

Conventional, teamwork, discussion in class.
Further readings and ppt presentations available on the moodle platform.

Italian

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Cities, infrastructure and social capital" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development