SOCIOLOGY 311: Japan and the United States: Comparisons and Perceptions

Spring 1998

• Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism--A Double-Edged Sword (New York: W.W. Norton &Co., 1996; for purchase).
  
  Ch. 7 , "American Exceptionalism--Japanese Uniqueness," 211-63.

• Yoshio Sugimoto, An Introduction to Japanese Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997; for purchase).
  
  Ch. 1, "The Japan Phenomenon and the Social Sciences" 1-32;
  Ch. 3, "Geographical and Generational Variations," 53-78.

• Sakaiya Taichi, "The 1993 Watershed and the Agenda for Reform," Japan Echo, Special Issue 1997, 72-80; in package (hereafter, P).

• Recommmended: S.N. Eisenstadt, Japanese Civilization: A Comparative Perspective

  Ch. 1, "Introduction: The Enigma of Japan."

Week 3: February 16, 18: Education and Social Mobility

• Thomas P. Rohlen, Japan's High Schools (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983, P)

  Ch. 4, "University Entrance Exams: A National Obsession," 77-110.

• Merry White, The Material Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America (New York: The Free Press, 1993, P)

  Ch. 3, "Family Time and Space," 51-70;
  Ch. 4, "School in the Life of the Teen," 71-101.

• Y. Sugimoto, An Introduction to Japanese Society

  Ch. 5, "Diversity and Unity in Education," 107-35.

• Robert L. Cutts, An Empire of Schools: Japan's Universities and the Molding of a National Power Elite (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1997 P).

  Ch. 1, "If There Is a God, He Went to Todai," 3-25.
  Ch. 4(part), "The Ivory Basement," 58-65, 82-96;
  Ch. 12, "Reform: No Exit," 239-61.

Recommended: Mamoru Tsukada, Yobiko Life: A Study of the legitimation Process of Social Stratificatiaon in Japan. Ch. 7, "The Consequences of Ronin Life," and Ch. 8, "Conclusion."

Week 4: February 23, 25: Gender and the Family System

Week 7: March 23, 25: The State: Challenges of Reform, Decentralization, and Economic Strategy.

• Yoshio Sugimoto, An Introduction to Japanese Society.

  Ch. 8, "Collusion and Competition in the Establishment," 193-219;

  Ch. 10, "Friendly Authoritarianism," 245-59.

• Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword.

  Ch. 2, "Economy, Religion, and Welfare," 60-76 (part).

• The Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2, Summer 1997, P.

  Kozo Yamamura, "The Japanese Political Economy after the 'Bubble': Plus Ca Change?" 291-331;

  T. J. Pempel, "Regime Shift: Japanese Politics in a Changing World Economy," 333-61.

• Japan Echo, Vol. 23, No. 3, Autumn 1996, P.

  "Reforming the Bureaucracy," 10-17 and 25-31.

• Recommended: Yasusuke Murakami and Thomas P. Rohlen, "Social-Exchange Aspects of the Japanese Political Economy: Culture, Efficiency, and Change," in The Political Economy of Japan, Vol. 3.

Week 8: March 30, April 1: The News Media and Intellectuals in the Information Age and the Samurai Legacy

• Ofer Feldman, Politics and the News Media in Japan (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1993, P).

  Ch. 2, "The Media-Government Relationship in Japan," 9-30;

  Ch. 5, "Variables in the Gathering of the News," 97-123;

  Ch. 6, "Controlling the Press: The View from the Diet," 125-47.

• Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism: A Double-edged Sword.

  Ch. 6, "American Intellectuals--Mostly on the Left, Some Politically Incorrect," 176-208.

• Eiko Ikegami, The Taming of the Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995, P).

  Ch. 1, "Honor, State Formation, and Social Theories," 15-43.

• Recommended: Eiko Ikegami, The Taming of the Samurai, Ch. 15, "Confucian and Post-Confucian Samurai."

Week 9: April 6, 8: High Culture and Low Culture

• Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword.

  Ch. 8, "A Double-Edged Sword," 267-92.

• Harumi Befu, ed., Cultural Nationalism in East Asia: Representation and Identity, P.

  Ch. 5, "Nationalism and Nihonjinron," 107-35.

• Takie Sugiyama Lebra, "Self and Other in Esteemed Status: The Changing Culture of the Japanese Royalty from Showa to Heisei," Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2, Summer 1997, 257-89, P.

• Yoshio Sugimoto, An Introduction to Japanese Society.

  Ch. 9, "Popular Culture and Everyday Life," 220-44.

• S. N. Eisenstadt, Japanese Civilization: A Comparative Perspective (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, P)

  Ch. 17, "Japanese Modernity: Japan in the Contemporary World," 427-45.

• Recommended: S.N. Eisenstadt, Japanese Civilization, other chapters.

Week 10: April 13, 15: Perceptions of the Other

• Sheila Johnson, The Japanese Through American Eyes (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988, P), pp. 93-110 and 124-44.

• Walter Feinberg, Japan and the Pursuit of a New American Identity: Work and Education in a Multicultural Age (New York: Routledge, 1993, P).

  Chs. 1 (part), 2 (part), and 7, 15-44; 168-94.

• Recent Japanese sources on the United States, to be selected, some recommended.

Week 11: April 20, 22: National Identities and Great Power Strategies

• Kenneth B. Pyle, The Japanese Question: Power and Purpose in a New Era (Washington, DC: The AEI Press, 1992, reserve).

  Ch. 2, "The Question of a Resurgent Japan," 6-19;

  Ch. 3, "Japan's Postwar National Purpose," 20-41;

  Ch. 7, "The Burdens of History," 106-20;

  Ch. 8, "Power and Purpose in a New Era," 121-46.

• Japan in the 21st Century--Flourish or Fade?--(Tokyo: Global Industrial and Social Progress Research Institute, 1996, reserve.

  Part 2. Shin'ichi Kitaoka, "Japan's Diplomatic Reforms," 75-97.

• Mike M. Mochizuki, ed., Toward a True Alliance: Restructuring U.S.-Japan Security Relations (Washington, DC, Brookings Institution Press, P).

  Mike M. Mochizuki, "American and Japanese Strategic Debates: The Need for a New Synthesis," 43-82.

• Recommended: Mike M. Mochizuki, Toward a True Alliance, other chapters.