Until the early 1990s, Japanese education was widely commended for achieving outstanding outcomes in global comparison. At the same time, it was frequently criticized for failing to cultivate 'individuality' and 'creativity' in students. Wide-ranging education reforms were enacted during the 1990s to remedy these perceived failings. However, as this book argues, the reforms produced a different outcome than intended, contributing to growing disparity in learning motivation and educational aspiration of students from different class backgrounds instead. Takehiko Kariya demonstrates by way of...

This book offers an empirical and theoretical study of the Koizumi administration, covering such issues as the characteristics of its political style, its domestic and foreign policies, and its larger historical significance. The key questions that guide its approach are: what enabled Koizumi to exercise unusually strong leadership, and what structural transformations of Japanese politics did he achieve?

Uchiyama looks at policy-making processes, newly created institutional arenas such as the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, Koizumi's populist strategy, foreign policy,...

The present study analyzes the livelihood security system of contemporary Japan by way of historical and international comparison, in an effort to explore its current route and future prospects. The present study posits "livelihood security systems" rather than "welfare states" or "welfare regimes" as the object of its comparative investigation. It furthermore builds on the concept of "social exclusion," which it understands as the outcome of a dysfunction, or reverse function, of a livelihood security system.

The book discusses the current social security system in Japan,...