Remarkable insights into the profound Japanese concern 'for defending the cherished Japanese values amid an era of fantastic change', writes Peter Lowe.

Japan's concern for defending cherished Japanese values during a century of fantastic change (1859-1956) is one of the key themes to be drawn from the ten contributing writers in this volume. "Japan sought to meet the challenge of the West", note the editors, "through relying upon State Shintoism including the symbol of a powerful emperor, and pursuing an expansionist foreign policy in which strident claims to be liberating subjugated peoples within colonial territories were a cloak to conceal Japanese imperialism". The papers published in this volume have been drawn from the History, Politics and International Relations sections of the 1988 Conference of the European Association of Japanese Studies.