ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the historical construction and mutual imbrications of the categories of nation, state and gender in modern Japan. Governments are interested in regulating gender relations and in the management of sexuality. Indeed, the book adds that nation-states manage the physical bodies of their citizens and subjects. Although all modern nation-states are gendered, these processes are worked through in specific ways in specific times and places. Recent studies have begun to complicate and alter earlier gender-blind narratives of modern Japanese history. Building on these critical studies, the book pay particular attention to the distinction between nation and state, and to the transformations of the gender order during two major periods: Imperial Japan and from 1945 to the present. The book provides a transnational and comparative perspective through the inclusion of Sidonia Blättler's chapter on gender and nation in modern European history.
