This book locates the development of Dowa policy projects within their historical and political context, offering examples of human rights protection in a non-Western society. Charting Dowa policy from its origins in the pre-war period to its revival after 1945 up to the turn of the 21st century, chapters in this study provide a social and historical review supplemented by detailed analyses of policy process and implementation at both national and local levels. No previous publication on the 'Buraku Problem' has focused on the direct impact of Dowa policy in overcoming prejudice and economic inequalities. Topics covered range from left-wing Buraku Liberation League demands in the late 1950s, the Special Measures Law for Dowa Policy Projects (SML) in the 1960s, and the evolution of a human rights based Dowa policy into the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Through its evaluation of the relative successes and failures to improve local infrastructure and opportunities for marginal communities, this book invites comparative analysis with policies in other Asian and Western polities which seek to mitigate descent-based and racial discrimination. Dowa Policy and Japanese Politics will prove a valuable resource for students and scholars of international relations, human rights, politics, and Japanese studies.

Shows Japan's group-orientated society may have had fewer so-called 'leaders', but has excelled as a society of king-makers. On the other hand, the way leadership is expressed derives from different values and perceptions of hierarchy.

Japanese society is often referred to as an example of a homogeneous culture moderated by an ethos of groupism. Yet often enough homogeneity is its own worst enemy as norms are required and enforced at the centre of power to the detriment of individual and human rights.

Written by an internationally recognized specialist on Buraku studies, this book casts new light on majority-minority relations and the struggle for Buraku liberation. Ian Neary focuses on the Burakumin activist, left-wing politician, family company manager and arguably the most important Buraku leader of the twentieth century: Matsumoto Jiichiro. Based on primary material reflecting recent research, each chapter locates Matsumoto Jiichiro's experience within the broader developments in Japan's social, political and economic history and illuminates dimensions of its social history during the twentieth century that are frequently left unconsidered. As an examination of Buraku history this book will appeal to scholars and students of Japanese political and economic history, ethnic and racial studies, socialism, social thought and social movements.

Written by an internationally recognized specialist on Buraku studies, this book casts new light on majority-minority relations and the struggle for Buraku liberation. Ian Neary focuses on the Burakumin activist, left-wing politician, family company manager and arguably the most important Buraku leader of the twentieth century: Matsumoto Jiichiro. Based on primary material reflecting recent research, each chapter locates Matsumoto Jiichiro's experience within the broader developments in Japan's social, political and economic history and illuminates dimensions of its social history during the twentieth century that are frequently left unconsidered. As an examination of Buraku history this book will appeal to scholars and students of Japanese political and economic history, ethnic and racial studies, socialism, social thought and social movements.

Ian Neary looks in detail at the history of the introduction of human rights ideas into Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and examines how, and to what effect, state and society have incorporated the specific international standards on childrens' and patients' rights into legal systems and social practice.
This comprehensively researched, accessibly written book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Asian studies, human rights, sociology and politics.

Ian Neary looks in detail at the history of the introduction of human rights ideas into Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and examines how, and to what effect, state and society have incorporated the specific international standards on childrens' and patients' rights into legal systems and social practice.
This comprehensively researched, accessibly written book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Asian studies, human rights, sociology and politics.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203167414

Japanese society is often referred to as an example of a homogeneous culture moderated by an ethos of groupism. Yet, often enough, homogeneity is its own worst enemy as norms are required and enforced at the centre of power to the detriment of individual and human rights. In a similar way, groupism generates many contexts of exclusivity which can also result in debilitating environments of second class citizens.

Shows Japan's group-orientated society may have had fewer so-called 'leaders', but has excelled as a society of king-makers. On the other hand, the way leadership is expressed derives from different values and perceptions of hierarchy.

The end of the Cold War years has brought tumultuous change. Revolutionary changes, however, are not new to the Japanese.

"Revolution was still in the air in Berlin (the venue for the triennial conference of the European Association of Japanese Studies) in September 1991", notes the editor, Ian Neary, in his introduction to these papers from the first post-Cold War international Japanese Studies conference. "The previous month an attempted coup by army officers in Moscow had seemed poised to reverse the liberalization of the Soviet Union. Its failure led to the rapid unravelling of the Soviet state, a process whose consequences are still not at all clear. What is clear and what was commonly felt, is that we had been witnessing, even participating in a series of events at least as important for Russia and the wider world as was the Meiji Ishin (the Imperial Restoration of 1868) for Japan and world history". The historical range of the papers, including contributions from Eastern European scholars, is very broad; from a discussion of the Tokugawa view of Japan's place in the world to the relevance of the "Japanese model" for the future development of Eastern Europe. Among the other papers are an examination of how the 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe were viewed in Japan, Russian interpretations of th