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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

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 …

Nuclear Weapons In Japanese Strategic Culture, Logan Joseph Douglas Campbell

MSU Graduate Theses

Acquiring nuclear weapons of its own has been inconsistent with Japan’s post-Cold War strategic culture, which is heavily based on an identity and associated norms grounded in nuclear pacifism. However, Japan’s strategic culture has been evolving with changing threat perceptions, eroding international nuclear nonproliferation norms, and declining confidence in US security guarantees. As Japan’s strategic culture shifts towards a more pragmatic interpretation of its national interests, acquiring nuclear weapons may become a more easily legitimized option, one that would be entirely consistent with a remilitarized strategic culture. Scholarship on Japanese strategic culture is vast but lacks a strategic culture explanation …

Islands In The Sun: Lawfare And Great-Power Competition In The Indo-Pacific, Clayton T. Russo

MSU Graduate Theses

This thesis examines the U.S.-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty and its future considering the recent developments in the international security environment. The 2018 National Defense Strategy brought back an emphasis on Great Power Competition, fundamentally transforming the role of U.S. alliances to address new challenges. In the 2021 budget, the Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI) has prioritized the People’s Republic of China as the number one pacing threat to theUnited States, drastically shifting international focus away from the Middle East and towards East Asia. In conjunction with funding new capabilities through the PDI, the U.S. will need to conceive new legal doctrines …

The Nail That Sticks Up Isn't Always Hammered Down: Women, Employment Discrimination, And Litigiousness In Japan, Kristen Luck

Theses and Dissertations

Much recent scholarship is devoted to projecting Japan’s future and analyzing its prospects as a global power. After two decades of economic stagnation, alarming demographic trends, and the 3/11 triple disaster, some scholars argue that Japan is grappling with an era of precarity, marked with instability and anxiety. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to office in 2012, promoting his economic reform policy, “Abenomics” and within the third “arrow" of this approach targeting structural reforms, he promoted “womenomics”, a term coined by Kathy Matsui of Goldman-Sachs. Prime Minister Abe’s objective is to create a society where "women can shine” and women …

Japan's Employment 'Catch-22': The Impact Of Working Conditions For Women In Japan On Japan's Demographic Population Crisis, Mary Perkins

Master's Theses

This thesis examines Japan’s aging population crisis and gender inequalities in the workplace. This topic presents an interesting and challenging phenomenon for Japan, as Japan’s economy and technology have developed more rapidly than almost any other country, establishing Japan as one of the Group of Seven industrialized nations. Yet Japan still significantly lags behind other industrialized nations when it comes to women’s rights and opportunities for advancement in the workplace. This is in turn hampering efforts for Japan to address a population crisis, with an older population growth rate far outpacing the growth of demographic groups that would support the …

The Influence Of Historical Processes Of Haiti And Japan On The Effects Of The Earthquakes, Shoko Nakamura

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Looking at the societies of Haiti and Japan after the earthquakes, the effects of the disasters to each society are not the same. This research paper discusses that the effects of a disaster on society are the result of social conditions. Utilizing the theories of world-system perspective and risk society, this paper tries to understand how historical process contributes to contemporary social structure and how a holistic approach is important to the discussion of different experiences of the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan. As a method, comparative historical method is utilized with the focus of within-case method, and major sources …

Ngo Collaboration In Natural Disaster Response Efforts- A Comparative Case Study Of Earthquakes In Asia, Richelle S. Grogg

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This paper examines the response of NGOs to natural disasters, specifically in regards to collaboration efforts. The study utilizes a comparative case study methodology of most-similar design to look at three specific disasters- The Kashmir Earthquake, The Sichuan Earthquake, and The Japan Earthquake. Within each of these earthquakes the organizations Doctors Without Borders, the International Red Cross, and Oxfam International’s specific responses will be highlighted. The collaboration efforts will be examined utilizing general questions focusing on willingness to collaborate, commitment, and compatibility of objectives. Ultimately, this study found that all three components seem to be hypotheses worthy of further study.

Demographic Challenges Facing Japan: Is The Solution Immigration Or Family Incentives?, Hui Lin

Public Administration & Policy

No abstract provided.

Why Foreign Policy Principles Persist: Understanding The Reinterpretations Of Japan’S Article 9 And Switzerland’S Neutrality, Yuki Numata

Pomona Senior Theses

This study examines why Japan and Switzerland have chosen to keep the vocabulary of Article 9 and neutrality, respectively, and to reinterpret their definitions to suit their needs (policy reinterpretation), instead of simply abandoning the original policy and replacing it with a new, more suitably worded policy that clarifies the changing policy position of the government (policy abandonment). By analyzing the legal history of the overseas capabilities of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and the Swiss Armed Forces, as well as the actions and influences of the government, political parties, and the public, this study finds the following trends. First, the …

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 …

Japan: Nuclearizing The Reclining Dragon?, Michael Ladon Cribb Jr.

MSU Graduate Theses

Japan may be about to cross the threshold of a slow march toward nuclearization. This thesis will highlight signals that Japan not only has the means to develop nuclear weapons but maybe approaching a culmination point where Japan will cross the nuclear threshold. This thesis relies on a range of open-source documents and previously classified documents of the United States and Japan in order to reveal some of these subtle indications. Japan relies on four main factors to maintain its non–nuclear status: its alliance with the United States, nuclear deterrence underwritten by the United States, regional stability, and the nuclear …

Troubled Waters: Security, Economic Development, And The Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands., Kevin Mckenzie

Theses and Dissertations

This project uses a case-study approach to determine the causes of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Island dispute between Japan and the People's Republic of China.

Explaining Nuclear Energy Pursuance: A Comparison Of The United States, Germany, And Japan, Lauren Emily Mckee

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Energy is critical to the functioning of the global economy and seriously impacts global security as well. What factors influence the extent to which countries will pursue nuclear energy in their overall mix of energy approaches? This dissertation explores this critical question by analyzing the nuclear energy policies of the United States, Germany and Japan. Rather than citizen opposition or proximity to nuclear disasters, it seems that a country's access to other resources through natural endowments or trading relationships offers the best explanation for nuclear energy pursuance.

The United States Military Realignment On Okinawa, Kevin M. Evringham

Master's Theses

The United States maintains military bases in foreign countries in efforts to protect American overseas interests, whether they are economic, diplomatic or for geostrategic purposes. In Japan, where the United States has maintained military installations since the end of World War II, debate over the realignment of forces on Okinawa has caused minor, yet growing, rifts in the stable United States-Japanese alliance. Current plans to shift American military forces from Okinawa to locations throughout the Pacific do not take into account the historical or geostrategic factors for their stationing in Japan. This thesis identifies the geostrategic challenges to the current …

Japan's Preventive Strategy: Secure The World—The National Defense Program Guidelines In And After Fy 2010, Tadashi Watanabe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Japanese government is now reviewing the National Defense Program Guidelines in and after FY 2005 (NDPG 04), and this review will be completed by the end of this year. Even though NDPG 04 provides Japan's security and defense policy vision to FY 2014, the government nevertheless has decided to change it completely. The purpose of this thesis is to know the reason why the Japanese government has decided to change NDPG 04 completely, the likely contents of NDPG 09, and NDPG 09's effect on the US-Japan alliance.

The globalizing international society and threats have been increasingly diversified and multi-polarized …

Japan's Missile Defense, Norifumi Namatame

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For some years, Japan has pursued its own missile defense system in cooperation with the United States. The Japanese government claims that the missile defense (JMD) program is purely defensive and will not pose a threat to other countries. JMD may seem justified by North Korea's development of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. However, neighboring states regarded it as a sign of military ambition and revival of Japan's prewar militarism. The development and deployment of JMD could have grave implications for regional and global security. This dissertation focuses on these implications, domestic and international political considerations and the future direction …