ABSTRACT
The purpose of this book is to illuminate the changing nature of contemporary Japan by decoding a range of political, economic and social boundaries, with a focus on the period following the inauguration of Prime Minister Koizumi Junichirō’s administration (2001-06), the longest serving Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) administration since that of Prime Minister Satō Eisaku (196472). A rapid turnover of LDP prime ministers came in Koizumi’s wake – Abe Shinzō (2006-07), Fukuda Yasuo (2007-08) and Asō Tarō (2008-09) – none of whom faced the electorate, and then followed the defeat of Asō and the election of Hatoyama Yukio’s Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in the landslide general election victory of August 2009. Nevertheless, the transformations set in motion through Koizumi’s promotion of a more proactive role for Japan internationally, and the implementation of deregulation and ‘structural reforms’ domestically, helped to set the agenda for future administrations. True, each LDP administration offered a somewhat different emphasis, with prime ministers Fukuda and Asō in particular less supportive of the domestic reform agenda championed by Koizumi, but a greater international role for Japan and a restructuring of the domestic political economy and more widely society have remained as core issues for future governments. With the election of the DPJ, moreover, a call for new social benefits, such as an election pledge for child allowances, and a greater focus on playing an international role in East Asia, as illustrated by Hatoyama’s announcement of promoting an East Asian Community, point to the changes the DPJ government is seeking to put in place. Nevertheless, the new government is similarly faced with the need to deal with the legacy of structural reform as well as the country’s international role. Internationally, indeed, the new prime minister’s call for equal partnership with the United States and the outstanding issue of transferring the Marine Corps Airbase Futenma from Ginowan to Henoko, Nago, has taken on an increasing salience, especially in the wake of the January 2010 election of a new Nago mayor opposed to the relocation of the base to the city. These processes of change have been facilitated by the negotiation of the dissolution, shift and reinscription of a range of political, economic and social boundaries at the heart of contemporary Japan. The consequence has been the creation of newly inscribed boundaries enabling the embrace of new actors as well as the shrinking of boundaries to exclude others. Understanding the transitional nature of boundaries serves
to deepen our knowledge of contemporary Japan, as by exposing the way boundaries function, their implications become much clearer.
