 Okay, I think I think we're ready to start our the fifth and the last case. So the case of Japan once again will follow the same format. We'll talk about Japanese state tradition and historical perspective. We'll discuss a little bit the legacy that this sets. Secondly, political economy of economic and social policies. We'll talk about the Japanese economic miracle, the developmental state. Third, governance and policymaking. We'll look at the executive. Fourth, representation and participation. We'll look at Japan as a predominant party system, party regime, which has been changing or is it changing during the 1990s, 2000s. Then we'll look at, you know, finally, current challenges, you know, Fukushima and others. So what does Japan look like geographically off the coast of China? We've got South Korea, North Korea, and Russia up north. It's thousands of islands, very poor in natural resources. A fraction of the land is arable. We have rice growing, a tradition of rice growing, but not much foodstuffs other than than rice. So has never been self-subsistent in that respect. No oil and not rich in oil and gas, not rich in coal and iron. So the Japanese governments during the phase of industrialization, 1870s, 1880s, 1890s, they felt they needed to expand, to look for, to search for raw materials as well as markets. So all of this, but has been an island. So in that respect have been protected from conquests coming from China. It had invaded parts of China and the Korean peninsula in the past. So it had an expansive ambition throughout history. Let's talk about medieval, ancient and medieval Japan. We have tribal states from the mid-3rd century onwards. We have the heavenly king in the 4th century. So heavenly king in a way trying to consolidate Japanese lands in the 4th country. Japan starts to emerge as a unified as well as an independent state starting from this period for about 8, 9 centuries. You know from the 4th century till the 12th century we still have tribal groups vying for power, competing for power. But from the 12th century onwards we have a monarchy. Okay? One single monarchy. In fact many monarchies replacing one another, shogunates replacing one another. But in this system we've got the shogun who had been controlling the imperial power. Okay? The imperial court. The Tokugawa shogunate, so medieval Japan from the early 1600s till the Meiji restoration till 1860s. So for more than 250 years we have a feudal aristocracy, feudal autocracy, okay? Ruling Japan. Close to foreign contacts. So in a way trying to be self-subsistent. Okay? So mostly isolated from outside and they've been trying to rule Japan with a very sharp social stratification. So we had six classes. Later on these six classes, six strata, six levels or layers. They've been reduced to three. But as you can see the most important of these classes is warriors. Because it's the shogunate, it's the military power, it's a feudal autocracy. So it's basically the soldiers, the warriors who've been at the top of the social stratification. Then followed by farmers, artisans, merchants, then filthy hordes and nonhumans. So basically six classes and women in this period were relegated to the lowest ranks. They were in a way seen as inferior within the society. Well what's important to remember is that this is a history of more than 250 years of history of being closed, being isolationist and being on the side of Asia. Then comes Meiji Restoration. We'll talk about this details later on. 1860s till 1920s. So this is the period of transition to modernity. This is a period of revolution, social transformation, massive economic transformation, enormous industrialization leading to democracy or some form of democracy. So Meiji Restoration is an example for a revolution from above. It is very much similar to the other revolution from above of Germany. Remember Otto von Bismarck, revolution from above, bringing together the elite, marriage of iron and rye. So this is another example of revolution from above. Emperor Meiji bringing together the elite, oligarchic government incorporating the elite, incorporating industrialists, incorporating warriors. And it is in this period that Japan transforms from a feudal power to an industrial power. And with industrialization comes a very Prussian-like military. So it is very much modeled after the Prussian army. It is very much modeled after the German system. As you can see, the period of these two revolutions from above are very similar. 1860s, 1870s, 1870s in Germany, late 1860s, 1870s in Japan. So there's many similarities across the board in terms of how these social transformations have been taking place from feudal societies. Well, in the German case, we have very vibrant society, very vibrant economy, especially up north, the Hanseatic League in the feudal era, in the medieval era. But here we have much less vibrant economy, but industrializing massively from the 1860s onwards, all through 1870s, 1880s, 1900s, 1890s, 1900s. And Japan emerges as an industrial powerhouse in the 20th century. The sixth class system is reduced to a three-class system, so social stratification-wise. There is some consolidation, but when you look at the social structure, there hasn't been much change overall. But it is in this period, remember we talked about the case that under the Tokugawa Shogunate it's been an isolationist strategy. It is in this period that we see Japan opening up to external influence, opening to outside, importing Western models by Western models, mostly German model of organizing the military, German model of organizing the industry. As we shall be talking about, there are many parallels between the German model of organization and the Japanese model of organizing the industry. Western economic models, Western culture, so Westernization is an important element here, is an important institutional element here. Western political ideas, the idea of democratic order, democratic society, with a constitution, with an imperial diet. So, and mind you, the name of the legislature diet comes from the Prussian diet. So, as you can see, there are many parallelisms. Well, there are many influences of Germany being imparted upon the Japanese case. From 1912 to 1920s, for about 15 years or so, we have a brief period of Taisho democracy, two political parties, universal suffrage, but universal suffrage is relegated only to of course males. We have some kind of democracy, very fragile, but also superficial in respects more than one. Another critical juncture, a critical milestone is, you know, militarization, strengthening of the Japanese military, military rule leading to war. Emperor Hirohito comes to power in 1920s after Taisho democracy, consolidates power and strengthens Japanese military. So, 1920s, you see a military on the stage, Japanese military on the stage, early part of the 20th century. The military had developed an esprit de corps. They have developed a spirit of defending themselves. They have invested in own defense, Japan's defense, and they had their own foreign policy goals. So, they have been also dictating their foreign policy goals on the emperor and his government. It had expansionist visions, so it wished to expand to other areas because industrialization required that and military conquest was another counterpart to the process of industrialization. So, wealth had to be created by power and power would in turn create and recreate or bring more wealth. And intimidation of domestic opponents was frequent because it was a consolidated rule by the military. Political parties were banned, so this period we do not talk about democracy in Japan. They allied with Germany, did invade China, you know, Korean Peninsula, and attacked Pearl Harbor. So, that was another milestone in Japanese history. And then we have Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Two cities were bombed by the American forces in 1945, and Hirohito says, okay, we surrender and unconditionally. So, end game, the end, dead end. Then after the war had ended, we had occupation by allied forces for a brief period for six, seven years. The aim was demilitarized Japan and democratized Japan. So, this was the period in which Japanese constitution was drafted. The military was dismantled. Anti-democratic policies such as intimidation of opposition, banning of unions, banning of political parties were in a way abolished. And the entire bureaucracy was restructured. It was in a way reformed. With the new constitution, we had democracy as a new regime in Japan. And in the constitution, it says we are a pacifist, peaceful nation. And we want to keep peace as such. And the role of the emperor has been relegated to a symbolic position or posture. And the diet as the only legislative organ in the Japanese state or organization of state. From 1950s onwards, we see competitive politics. But we see the emergence of what's called a predominant party regime. Two political parties in the post-World War II era. They form a new party. So, the liberal party, Japan liberal party, merging with the democratic party. It becomes the LDP, which you shall be hearing about very frequently, liberal democratic party or liberal democrat party, which had been monopolizing government until about the early 1990s. The LDP is still reigning as a very important force in the Japanese party system. It is still forming governments one after another. But there was some party system change. Or was this a party system change? Or was this, you know, what kind of a change this was? We've been debating in the literature. All those years, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, until 1990s, were years of political stability. But there were many crises in those years, too. Revision of the US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty was, you know, back in the 60s, was one major crisis. You know, how do we deal with our relations with the US? You know, what should the party line be? The LDP's line be. 1973 oil shock. Price of oil Japanese as being a, you know, flatly importing an importer of oil had been affected by this phenomenon, which brought with it a sharp economic downturn. Scandals, political scandals of the 70s and 1980s, 1990s, the bubble economy recession, banking crises, prices of immobiles, land, but also, you know, apartment buildings, apartments, houses have been skyrocketing, which later spilled over to other East Asian countries in time by the end of the 1990s, 1997, 1998, East, basically Asian economic crisis. So early 1990s massive recession, which brought with it all kinds of political turmoil, social upheavals, economic recession. LDP had begun to lose power back in 1989, right before the election or en route to recession, but then had been forming coalition governments, had been able to form coalition governments later on. So perhaps we should, I mean, I'd like to begin the role of the state in the economy. Perhaps we should end here and then we could start our discussion on the role of the state next time because we've had a lengthy discussion for completing Germany in the previous hour. So you may be tired a little. I sense a little bit of tiredness. So we should end here and then I'll continue with the economic and social policies of Japan next week on Tuesday. On Friday, we shall be writing the in-class assignment on the German case. See you all on Friday.