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What Doesn’T Kill You Makes You Stronger: The Shifting Strategies Of Japan’S Yakuza In Response To Economic Globalization And Securitization, Benjamin P. Murkison Apr 2023

What Doesn’T Kill You Makes You Stronger: The Shifting Strategies Of Japan’S Yakuza In Response To Economic Globalization And Securitization, Benjamin P. Murkison

Honors College Theses

The Yakuza in Japan is a deeply traditional and infamous ethnic mafia, which has historically based their profits off of the protection of gambling rings and street vendors, but have developed into one of the most sophisticated and wealthy criminal institutions in the world. Reaching their peak in the 1960’s with around 200,000 members, the Yakuza has been in a slow decline ever since. However, the past decade has seen the most dramatic drop in Yakuza numbers in recorded history, as a result of increasing securitization by the Japanese state. As their power has declined within Japan, they have only …


Is State Feminism The Key To Gender Equality?, Nadine Mohamed Kamaly Jan 2023

Is State Feminism The Key To Gender Equality?, Nadine Mohamed Kamaly

Theses and Dissertations

“The male point of view forces itself upon the world as a way of apprehending it. Perspectives from the male standpoint enforces a woman's definition, encircles her body, circumlocutes her speech, and describes her life” (Mackinnon, 1983, 636). How the world views women is sometimes out of their hands. Ogasawara (1999) explains that “there is a multiplicity of socially acceptable images of Japanese women today” (pg.87). Throughout this thesis, I will explore the several, but limited, images that Japanese society has rendered acceptable for women. I will also examine how Japanese State Feminism aims to give women the opportunity to …


Environmental Policy Implementation And Electoral Institutions In Germany And Japan, Kaia Rendo Jan 2023

Environmental Policy Implementation And Electoral Institutions In Germany And Japan, Kaia Rendo

Honors Theses

In an era when attention to reconstruction and preservation of the environment is crucial, this thesis looks at the effect that electoral institutions have on attention paid to the environmental policy issue dimension. Specifically, it looks at party manifestos and policies in post-1980 Germany and Japan to determine if specific electoral structures, such as the number of parties in a system, correlates with a greater amount of either attention paid to environmental policy in party platforms or in the actual passing of policy. It finds that though both Germany and Japan employ multi-member proportional systems, the greater number of parties …


Disengaged And Disempowered: How Depoliticization Prevents Two-Party Competition In Japan, Cooper Price Mar 2021

Disengaged And Disempowered: How Depoliticization Prevents Two-Party Competition In Japan, Cooper Price

The Commons: Puget Sound Journal of Politics

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has ruled Japan for nearly the entirety of its postwar history. After a short period of opposition control (2009-2012), the LDP has spent the past eight years reestablishing the dominant-party system through which it has monopolized Japanese politics since the 1950s. This article contends that the LDP’s resilience is bolstered by two important aspects of Japanese civil society: the bureaucracy’s insulation from democratic accountability, and a growing public trend of disengagement with the political process. I explain both of these tendencies through the theoretical lens of depoliticization. Flinders and Wood identify “depoliticization” as a shift …


The East China Sea In Dod China Military Power Reports, Bert Chapman Feb 2017

The East China Sea In Dod China Military Power Reports, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2000 saw Congress require the Department of Defense (DOD) to prepare an annual report on Chinese military power. This report contains classified and unclassified editions. Documenting Chinese military developments, strategy, and trends are critical parts of these reports. Beijing’s military activities in the East China Sea (ECS) are important report components. This work explains the importance of these and other DOD reports for those studying ECS developments, examines how DOD has documented Beijing’s military activities within these publicly accessible reports, and describes how members of Congress have reacted to ECS developments during the Obama …


The Hermeneutics Of International Trade Conflicts: U.S. Punitive Trade Policy Towards China And Japan, Barry F. Murdaco Feb 2016

The Hermeneutics Of International Trade Conflicts: U.S. Punitive Trade Policy Towards China And Japan, Barry F. Murdaco

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes punitive trade conflicts between the U.S. and two trading partners: China and Japan. Punitive trade conflicts can be defined as trade wars between two states, retaliatory tariffs, or other forms of conflict, e.g. preventing the acquisition of foreign assets or sanctions for an undervalued exchange rate. I will examine several trade conflicts between the U.S. and Japan in the 1980s and several trade conflicts between the U.S. and China from 2001 to the present. This study is situated within a larger debate concerning the resolution of four theoretical "puzzles" in political science. The first concerns the dispute …


The Politics Of Mental Health: A Comparative Study Of Policy Adoption And Implementation In Germany And Japan, Luis Diego Campos Jan 2016

The Politics Of Mental Health: A Comparative Study Of Policy Adoption And Implementation In Germany And Japan, Luis Diego Campos

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In the aftermath of World War II, the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan followed Germany’s blueprint in fashioning a universal health coverage system. Comparisons to Germany’s welfare state during this same time period reveal markedly different social and mental health policy practices, as Germany’s Christian Democratic Union and Social Democratic Party cooperated toward progressive policies while the Liberal Democratic Party largely neglected social welfare expansion. The effect of these practices is reflected in budgetary provisions, institutionalization practices, and mental health epidemiology. This research finds that a favorable economic climate allowed the Liberal Democratic Party to politically isolate the Social Democratic …


It's Who You Know: Factors Driving Recovery From Japan's 11 March 2011 Disaster, Daniel P. Aldrich May 2015

It's Who You Know: Factors Driving Recovery From Japan's 11 March 2011 Disaster, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

The 11 March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake affected dozens of coastal communities along the shore of Japan’s Tohoku region. Following the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdowns, utilities, businesses and schools in some towns have bounced back to pre-disaster capacity while other municipalities have lagged behind. The question of which factors accelerate the recovery of business, infrastructure and population after the disaster remains unanswered. This article uses a new dataset of roughly 40 disaster-affected cities, towns and villages in the area to identify the factors connected with recovery. More than tsunami damage, spending on disaster mitigation, population density, economic conditions …


The Values Of Nations: The Fate Of Nations Is Not Predetermined, Daniel Reiher Apr 2015

The Values Of Nations: The Fate Of Nations Is Not Predetermined, Daniel Reiher

Senior Honors Theses

The values of a nation are vital for forming the institutions that govern a people and for guiding public policies. This thesis examines the historical institutions and political cultures of several nations and compares them to their geographic (i.e. continental) contemporaries. Particular emphasis is devoted to case-studies of Industrial Revolution Britain, Meiji Restoration Japan, Independent Botswana, and Post-war Asia. This thesis demonstrates a correlation between such institutions as free markets, limited government, and protected personal liberties, with national prosperity. Most importantly, the formation of these institutions was directly affected by the values of the individuals that established them. Values, both …


A Normal Accident Or A Sea-Change? Nuclear Host Communities Respond To The 3/11 Disaster, Daniel P. Aldrich Jan 2013

A Normal Accident Or A Sea-Change? Nuclear Host Communities Respond To The 3/11 Disaster, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

While 3/11 has altered energy policies around the world, insufficient attention has focused on reactions from local nuclear power plant host communities and their neighbors throughout Japan. Using site visits to such towns, interviews with relevant actors, and secondary and tertiary literature, this article investigates the community crisis management strategies of two types of cities, towns, and villages: thosewhich have nuclear plants directly in their backyards and neighboring cities further away (within a 30 mile radius). Responses to the disaster have varied with distance to nuclear facilities but in a way contrary to the standard theories based on the concept …


United States Export Policy Of Fighter Jets To East Asia, Andrew Derewiany Jan 2013

United States Export Policy Of Fighter Jets To East Asia, Andrew Derewiany

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

What explains fighter jet export policy to East Asia? The decision to export fighter jets from the United States (U.S.) to foreign countries is an important part of domestic and foreign policy. James Rosenau’s theory of linkage politics suggests that domestic and international variables may work together in complex ways to develop U.S. export policy of fighter jets. This thesis uses a comparative case study approach to examine the domestic and international factors that are influential in determining U.S. export policy of fighter jets to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. The political actors involved in making U.S. fighter jet export …


Post-Crisis Japanese Nuclear Policy: From Top-Down Directives To Bottom-Up Activism, Daniel P. Aldrich Dec 2011

Post-Crisis Japanese Nuclear Policy: From Top-Down Directives To Bottom-Up Activism, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Over the past fifty years, Japan has developed one of the most advanced commercial nuclear power programs in the world. This is largely due to the government’s broad repertoire of policy instruments that have helped further its nuclear power goals. These top-down directives have resulted in the construction of 54 plants and at least the appearance of widespread support for nuclear power. By the 1990s, however, this carefully cultivated public support was beginning to break apart. And following the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 and resulting nuclear crisis in the Fukushima nuclear complex, the political and social landscape for …


Hatoko Comes Home: Civil Society And Nuclear Power In Japan, Daniel P. Aldrich, Martin Dusinberre Jul 2011

Hatoko Comes Home: Civil Society And Nuclear Power In Japan, Daniel P. Aldrich, Martin Dusinberre

Daniel P Aldrich

This article seeks to explain how, given Japan’s “nuclear allergy” following World War II, a small coastal town not far from Hiroshima volunteered to host a nuclear power plant in the early 1980s. Where standard explanations of conten- tious nuclear power siting decisions have focused on the regional power utilities and the central government, this paper instead examines the importance of historical change and civil society at a local level. Using a microhistorical approach based on interviews and archival materials, and framing our discussion with a popular Japanese television show known as Hatoko’s Sea, we illustrate the agency of municipal …


Economic Development Under Dominant-Party Regimes, Christopher J. Gorud Jan 2011

Economic Development Under Dominant-Party Regimes, Christopher J. Gorud

Honors Theses

Case studies of economic development in Japan, Mexico, India, and Kenya examine the relationship between dominant-party regimes and developmental outcomes. This paper studies the variables of bureaucratic coherence and cohesion, corporatism, labor relations, and national developmentism as contributing factors to developmental success or failure in these states.


Japanese Liberal Democratic Party Support And The Gender Gap: A New Approach, Daniel P. Aldrich Dec 2010

Japanese Liberal Democratic Party Support And The Gender Gap: A New Approach, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

Scholars have argued that there is a broad gender gap in support for the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan. We uncover strong evidence that age, rather than gender, along with rural or urban location, serves as the most critical determinant of party support. Through logistic regression, propensity score matching and simulation techniques applied to four large-scale datasets; we demonstrate that age effects are consistent but slowly diminishing across cohorts between the mid-1970s and the early 2000s. As Japanese women and men age, they come to support the LDP at similar rates controlling for education, income and other demographic …


From Undemocratic To Democratic Civil Society: Japan's Volunteer Fire Departments, Mary Alice Haddad Jan 2010

From Undemocratic To Democratic Civil Society: Japan's Volunteer Fire Departments, Mary Alice Haddad

Mary Alice Haddad

How do undemocratic civic organizations become compatible with democratic civil society? How do local organizations merge older patriarchal, hierarchical values and practices with newer more egalitarian, democratic ones? This article tells the story of how volunteer fire departments have done this in Japan. Their transformation from centralized war instrument of an authoritarian regime to local community safety organization of a full-fledged democracy did not happen overnight. A slow process of demographic and value changes helped the organization adjust to more democratic social values and practices. The way in which this organization made the transition offers important lessons for emerging democracies …


"L’Effondrement Du Parti Libéral-Démocrate Et Le Retour Du Politique Au Japon" Par Nishitani Osamu, Matthieu Forlodou Oct 2009

"L’Effondrement Du Parti Libéral-Démocrate Et Le Retour Du Politique Au Japon" Par Nishitani Osamu, Matthieu Forlodou

Matthieu Forlodou

Le texte proposé est la traduction de l'article écrit par Nishitani Osamu (philosophe, professeur à l’Université des langues étrangères de Tokyo (Japon), membre correspondant de l’IEA de Nantes), et publié dans le numéro 797 (novembre 2009) de la revue "Sekai" (Le monde). L'auteur revient sur les dernières élections législatives qui se sont tenues cet été au Japon. Il fournit au lecteur quelques clés pour comprendre "l'alternance politique" qui s'est produite à la suite de ces élections. Il replace le vote des Japonais dans une perspectives plus large de retour du Politique dans leur société, après plus de 50 ans de …


The Crucial Role Of Civil Society In Disaster Recovery And Japan’S Preparedness For Emergencies, Daniel P. Aldrich Dec 2007

The Crucial Role Of Civil Society In Disaster Recovery And Japan’S Preparedness For Emergencies, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

This article is concerned with the empirical puzzle of why certain neighborhoods and localities recover more quickly than others following disasters. It illuminates four mainstream theories of rehabilitation and resilience, and then investigates a neglected factor, namely the role of social networks and civil society. Initial analyses underscore the important role of trust and connectivity among local residents in the process of rebuilding. After examining the role of civil society in Japan’s preparedness for emergencies, the article concludes with some policy recommendations for governments and nongovernmental actors involved in disaster relief.