The history of official relations between Russia and Japan encompasses a period of a little more than one hundred and fifty years, but stretch back unofficially for at least double that amount of time. But for both Russia and Japan, these relations have never been a key element of foreign policy, indispensable or intrinsically important for their diplomatic strategy. It is also noteworthy that for most of this time Russia and Japan were enemies, rivals, competitors. For both parties the significance of bilateral relations to a large extent was determined by their geographical proximity. This geographically predestined relationship can be characterized as 'distant neighbors'. At the same time, at certain historical stages, this neighborhood was not so 'distant'. The countries managed to establish relations in the economic sphere while tourism cultural scientific and educational ties were actively developing. The complexity of the relations which developed for just over three centuries is worthy of study. This book analyzes these three centuries of Japan-Russia relations so as not to miss out any essential factors of the relationship.

Japan: a land plagued by volcanoes, earthquakes and typhoons, yet blessed with a climate suitable for all manner of agriculture and forestry, and positioned where ocean currents collide and bring an abundance of the ocean's resources to its people; a country which moved quickly from an agrarian pre-industrial society to become one of the world's great economic powerhouses in only a few decades, spoiling water, air and land in the process, bringing misery to many of its people; a country with expansionist desires, colonizing neighboring lands, leading to war, defeat, destruction and, for the first time in history, nuclear devastation and its aftermath; a land and its people which share a remarkable resilience and ability to evaluate and correct their mistakes and renew their trajectory towards a better future.

After war defeat in 1945, Japan underwent historic political, economic and social transformations resulting in the country's rebirth as an economic powerhouse and exemplar of liberal democracy in East Asia. This handbook expands and enriches our understanding of this tumultuous contemporary era in Japan's modern history. Chapters in the volume ask novel theoretical questions and present fresh empirical perspectives on the era. How, for example, has the postwar era been chronologized to date and how might we rethink or enhance such interpretations? What can we learn by rethinking established moments and phases like the Allied Occupation, the period of high-speed economic growth, the 1970s, the Bubble Economy, and the 'lost decades' of Heisei Japan (1989-2019)? What new issues might we introduce to subvert accepted understandings of the postwar era and its various sub-eras? Moreover, how might Japan's internal postwar be expanded by rethinking the era through novel historical frameworks and regional imaginaries such as East Asian history, Cold War history, environmental history and transnational history? Contributors attempt to transcend temporal, geographical, intellectual and other boundaries inherent in our current understandings of Japan's postwar experience to provide a compelling compilation of perspectives. Showcasing the work of historians and leading scholars from other disciplines, chapters cover thematic areas including the origins of the postwar era, postwar politics, society and popular culture, transnational and international interactions, and historical memory.

The Annotated Constitution of Japan: A Handbook for the first time makes the entirety of Japan's constitution accessible in English. The book consists of a historical and contextual overview of how the constitution came into being, followed by descriptions of each of its 103 articles; the meaning of the text, interpretive disputes, academic theories and leading cases arising under them. The book also points out the many subtle distinctions between the English version and the Japanese, some of which arose from the charter's unique provenance. With contributors representing a broad range of expertise in various areas of Japanese law, the book is written to appeal to academics, students and general readers alike. It is intended to be the first port of call for anyone needing to understand the fundamentals of Japanese constitutional law, whether from the perspective of Japanese studies, comparative law, or political science, but unable to access the text and related literature available in Japanese. Key reference documents in English and Japanese are included as appendices for ease of reference.

The Handbook of Modern and Contemporary Japanese Women Writers offers a comprehensive overview of women writers in Japan, from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first. Featuring twenty-four newly written contributions from scholars in the field - representing expertise from North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia - the Handbook introduces and analyzes works by modern and contemporary women writers that coalesce loosely around common themes, tropes, and genres. Putting writers from different generations in conversation with one another reveals the diverse ways they have responded to similar subjects. Whereas women writers may have shared concerns - the pressure to conform to gendered expectation, the tension between family responsibility and individual interests, the quest for self-affirmation - each writer invents her own approach. As readers will see, we have writers who turn to memoir and autobiography, while others prefer to imagine fabulous fictional worlds. Some engage with the literary classics - whether Japanese, Chinese, or European - and invest their works with rich intertextual allusions. Other writers grapple with colonialism, militarism, nationalism, and industrialization. This Handbook builds a foundation which invites readers to launch their own investigations into women's writing in Japan.