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Re-Inventing Japan: Time, Space, Nation
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Comments/Reviews
Description: An intellectual tour de force, Re-Inventing Japan is a major effort to rethink the contours of Japanese history, culture, and nationality. Challenging the mythology of a historically unitary, even monolithic Japan, this important book offers a unique perspective on culture and identity in modern Japan. During the past two decades, Japan, with her distinctive culture, has been considered a model for others to emulate. At the same time, critics have questioned this emphasis on Japanese "uniqueness," seeking to reveal the darker elements -- the conformity and social pressures -- inherent in Japan's economic success. This book takes the debate a step further by examining the concepts that are used to understand modern Japan, focusing on such key issues as nature, culture, race, globalization, information, and democracy, to reveal how each concept has been applied and interpreted in modern Japan. The result points to a new approach to understanding Japan's place in today's world.
Selected Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Japan
3. Nature
4. Culture
5. Race
6. Gender
7. Civilization
8. Globalization
9. Citizenship
Review(s): A well-focused, tightly argued piece of academic writing that should delight Japanologists as well as students of comparative culture, ethnicity, and nation-building. ... This is a work that deserves to be taken seriously. ... The book reads smoothly and the author's arguments are persuasive and well supported with citations from Japanese and English secondary literature. ... A stimulating, well-crafted book that deserves a wide readership among scholars in many disciplines. It will also be a useful addition to undergraduate and graduate course syllabi on modern Japan. I recommend it heartily. Monumenta Nipponica
Morris-Suzuki uses a wide palate of both Japanese and western historians and philosophers to get at notions of 'culture,' 'race,' 'ethnicity' and 'civilization' and discover how thse categories have been used in the Japanese context. Pacific Affairs
With this deeply rewarding book the author makes us see many of the markers with which Japanese intellectuals have staked their nation's claim to identity. Japan Times
The volume makes considerable theoretical and substantive contribution to the understanding of both Japan and processes of nationbuilding more generally. Each chapter in the volume provides valuable insights into aspects of Japanese national identity...The volume will prove a useful resource for students and specialist researchers alike. Taken as a whole, it provides a wide-ranging overview of the symbolic and material forces which have shaped 'Japan' and 'the Japanese'...Re-inventing Japan is an engaging and thought-provoking work which offers fresh ways of looking at Japanese national identity and other collective identities worldwide. Asian Studies Review
This is not merely narrative, but challenges and forces the reader to think. It can be profitably read by all students of Japanese history and demands a kind of engagement that will be daunting for some, highly stimulating for others...This is a stimulating discussion that should have a productive impact on all who read it...This study should provoke a new appreciation for a Re-Invented Japan. Journal of Japanese Studies
... a welcome and useful addition to the library of works on identity formation. ... will be of considerable interest to both nonspecialists and specialists. Morris-Suzuki's concise and lucid writing style makes it possible to assign this book to undergraduates. The Journal of Asian Studies
    
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