Organizer and Chair: Akiko Hashimoto, University of Pittsburgh
Emigration and the Yamaguchi Rural Economy, 1885–1895
Jonathan Dresner, Harvard University
The vast majority of emigrants from pre-WWII Japan came from a handful of prefectures, and, within those prefectures, from specific districts and villages. Therefore, although the total number of emigrants barely reached one million over half a century, in southeastern Yamaguchi the percentage of residents overseas ranged from 5% to 10%. The stream of people, information, and money between high emigration villages and their expatriate members was substantial, and had significant effects on the social, economic and even physical growth of these villages and regions. It was not uncommon for emigrants to bring back more money after a three year labor contract than they could have earned in fifteen or twenty years in Japan; aggregate remittances often exceeded prefectural budgets in size. This paper will examine the economic effects of this capital flow, at the village and prefectural level, from the beginning of emigration in 1885 through 1895. The effects were subtle. Substantial industrial enterprises and shifts to market-oriented agriculture do not arise in Yamaguchi until after the Sino-Japanese War, but tenancy rates, banking and the local labor market were affected. This paper will include comparisons with other rural areas in Japan, and address the question of whether overseas migration played the same role in Yamaguchi as migration to cities from other regions of Japan during this period. My hypothesis is that internal and external migration had similar economic effects, but different social effects, particularly at the village level.
Iconography of Japanese Propaganda Leaflets During World War II
Rei Okamoto, Northeastern University
During World War II, numerous propaganda leaflets were produced by the Japanese military and distributed from airplanes to the Asian populace and enemy troops. The purpose of the leaflets for the former was to evoke antagonism toward the Western powers, while for the latter, to discourage the morale of enemy soldiers. These leaflets, which often contained full color cartoons, were secretly produced by the drawing group under the eighth section of the army general staff.
Cartoon leaflets were a means by which the state’s propaganda efforts were achieved through the use of iconography. Japan’s use of full-color cartoons on the leaflets stood out among countries involved in the war, in terms of the quantity and quality of production. Those designed for Asian populations contained messages aiming to pacify the local populace and accusing the Allies of being invaders and oppressors of Asians. On the other hand, those targeting enemy troops, often containing pornographic images of their wives and sweethearts in infidel situations, meant to lower the morale of the soldiers.
This paper analyzes iconography of Japanese cartoon leaflets in order to determine what kind of propaganda messages were embedded to suit different target audiences at different locations. The primary sources include leaflets targeted for the U.S. and Australian troops, for Indian soldiers and civilians, and for Southeast Asians, as well as an interview with Hasegawa Chûô, one of the five creators of the cartoon leaflets, who secretly preserved them for forty years after the war.
The Politics of Reconstructing National Identity in Postwar Japan
Steven Benfell, Western Michigan University
I apply a theoretical framework based on Gramsci’s notion of hegemony to explain how Japanese national identity was reconstructed after World War II. Adapting a model of institutional change that stresses the role of crisis in provoking punctuated transformations in institutions, I characterize national identity as an institution and argue that the interaction of perceptions of deep crisis, alternative conceptions of national identity, and successful political entrepreneurship explain the transformation of national identity in postwar Japan. I assert that a group of political entrepreneurs centered around Yoshida Shigeru took advantage of the sense of crisis that accompanied surrender and occupation to construct an alternative conception of national identity that portrayed Japan as an internationally passive "peace state" focused on the goals of national reconstruction and economic growth. Working within the constraints set by the Occupation and drawing on symbols, myths, and traditions they linked to prewar Japanese "history," these entrepreneurs fashioned a new institutional framework and set the fundamental assumptions about national identity that would channel Japanese politics for most of the postwar period. My framework unites structural factors (crisis) with culture (alternative conceptions of identity) and agency (political entrepreneurship) to provide a model which more fully captures the politics of the process of identity transformation. Further, my analysis suggests that both cultural theories (that assert national identity as immutable) and constructivist theories (that portray identity as infinitely malleable) fail to account for both the continuities and discontinuities in postwar Japanese national identity.
MITI and Multilateralism: The Evolution of Japan’s Trade Policy in the GATT Regime
Amy Searight, Harvard University
This paper summarizes important findings from my dissertation research on the evolution of Japan’s trade policy in the GATT regime of multilateral trade. Japan’s trade policies have undergone significant changes over the past few decades, becoming for more liberal in the 1970s and 1980s, and more recently developing a strong emphasis on multilateralisin in regulating trade relations and adjudicating disputes. Japan’s embrace of multilateralisin after many decades of resistance and neglect of multilateral bargaining opportunities has been noted by journalists and analysts of Japanese trade, but has not been systematically analyzed by scholars. My research attempts to do this. Although several factors are important for understanding these changes, including market forces and bilateral trade pressures, I argue that the timing and content of Japan’s multilateral trade policies has been determined by domestic politics. The most important factor has been the interests and ideas of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, or MITI. MITI’s broad jurisdiction over the industrial economy and its relative political autonomy has given it a pivotal role in Japan’s multilateral trade policy. MITI gradually lost its ability to pursue its mission of industrial policy in the wake of GATT-induced liberalization, leaving it vulnerable in the bureaucratic competition over political resources. MITI’s solution to this bureaucratic dilemma was to reorient its strategy towards an aggressive multilateralism on behalf of Japanese industry. This paper analyzes MITI’s changing strategic situation on both the international and domestic levels, and explains how MITI was able to reorganize itself internally to promote a new bureaucratic mission of liberal multilateralism in order to preserve its relevance and preeminent position within the domestic political economy.
Representing "Others," Representing "Us": The Making of the Council of Foreigners Representative in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan
Seung-Mi Han, Yonsei University, Korea
The globalization of Japan has diversified her population at an unprecedented rate, which has come to constitute significant problematics on the part of local government, as these "foreigners" began to ask for, albeit in a softened way, "administrative service" just as their Japanese counterparts do. First established in Kawasaki city in 1995, but spreading nationwide on a municipal or prefectural level in different organizational designs, the creation of the Council of Foreigners Representative is an official attempt to institutionalize these multicultural communities in an ingenious, yet domesticated way.
This paper deals with the making of the Council on the level of Kanagawa Prefecture, which is yet another experimental organization in that the local government encourages and enforces "progressive" Japanese representatives to sit down with these foreign representatives face to face and discuss current issues together. Linking this creation of an organizational body on the part of local government to the initiatives, resistance, and cooperation on the part of civilian communities, this paper will delineate the dynamics of the enlargement of "public sphere" in contemporary Japanese society.