Japan

by Edwin Reischauer

  1975

  March 10, the Shinkansen extended to Fukuoka; July 4, passage of the Political Funds Control Law; July 20, start of the International Ocean Exposition in Okinawa; October 2–13, visit by the emperor and empress to the U.S.; November 15–17, first summit meeting of the leaders of the six major industrial democracies at Rambouillet near Paris.

  1976

  February 2–4, revelation in U.S. Senate subcommittee hearings of scandals connected with the sale of Lockheed planes to Japan; May 4, Chisso executives indicted in the first criminal proceedings for pollution (Minamata case); May 24, ratification of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (signed February 1970); June 25, forming of the New Liberal Club by Kono Yohei; July 8, start of the Japan-U.S. Subcommittee for Defense Cooperation; July 22, completion of reparation payments with the final payments to the Philippines; July 27, arrest of Tanaka in connection with the Lockheed scandals; December 5, general elections; December 24, Fukuda Takeo as prime minister.

  1977

  March 26, Eda Saburo deserts the Socialists to form a new party (d. May 22); May 8, major clash at Narita Airport, with one fatality; July 10, upper house elections leave the Liberal Democrats with a majority of only 4; August 16–18, Fukuda’s tour of Southeast Asia and promises of increased aid; November 28, appointment of Ushiba Nobuhiko, a former foreign ministry bureaucrat, to a cabinet post to supervise trade problems with U.S.; December 13, Asukata Ichiro chosen chairman of the Socialist party.

  1978

  May 20, opening of Narita Airport; October 17, enshrinement of fourteen class A “war criminals” in the Yasukuni Shrine; October 31, fall of the dollar to 175.5 yen before rising again to over 200; November 26, victory of Ohira Masayoshi in the first Liberal Democratic party primaries for party president; December 5, agreement with the U.S. for the increase of beef and citrus imports; December 7, Ohira as prime minister.

  1979

  January 13, first uniform national university entrance examinations; April 8 and 22, conservative victories in local elections and the recovery of the governorship of Tokyo after twelve years of Minobe’s incumbency; April 22, Chisso executives found criminally responsible in the Minamata pollution case; June 24–27, President Jimmy Carter visits Japan; June 28–29, fifth summit meeting of the seven major industrial democracies held in Tokyo; July 1, 30 percent increase in oil prices; July 25–26, director general of the defense agency visits South Korea; October 7, general elections; October 26, assassination of the Korean president, Park Chung Hee; November 8, appointment of the economist Okita Saburo as foreign minister in a reorganized Ohira cabinet; November 27, Komeito officially announces its support of the Security Treaty with the U.S.; December 27, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan increases world tensions.

  1980

  January 15–20, Ohira tours the West Pacific nations speaking of a Pacific Rim grouping; May 1, Ohira visits Washington; May 16, lower house votes nonconfidence in Ohira and he dissolves it; May 22, Asukata announces dropping of Socialists’ opposition to the Security Treaty and Self-Defense Forces; June 12, death of Ohira from heart attack; June 22, LDP wins strong majorities in elections in both houses; July 9, President Carter attends Ohira’s memorial service in Tokyo; July 17, Suzuki Zenko as prime minister; September, outbreak of Iran-Iraq war.

  1981

  May 1, Japan agrees to self-restraint on car exports to U.S. to 1,680,000 units in fiscal 1981; May 7–8, Suzuki visits Washington and confirms with President Ronald Reagan “alliance relationship” between the two countries; May 12, Suzuki “clarifies” this statement and foreign minister resigns on May 15; May 17, former U.S. Ambassador Edwin Reischauer’s statement that American nuclear weapons pass through Japanese waters stirs up large controversy; May 27, most of budget frozen except for defense, foreign aid, and energy development; June 10–13, working-level defense consultations with the U.S. in Hawaii; July 21, Soviet Union and Japan block ban on whaling; August 15, Suzuki and eighteen cabinet members visit Yasukuni Shrine; December 1, Komeito chairman Takeiri Yoshikatsu says party recognizes Self-Defense Forces as constitutional.

  1982

  January 30, announcement of removal of sixty-seven nontariff barriers (more added May 28); March 13, Tokyo Stock Exchange opened to foreign firms; March 26, U.S. Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger calls for 1,000-mile radius of defense by Japan (accepted by Japan September 14); March 28, mass demonstrations at Narita Airport; March 29, 342 victims of PCB poisoning awarded 2.48 billion yen damages; June 8, two former cabinet members sentenced in Lockheed scandal; June 23, service started on Northeast (Tohoku) Shinkansen from Omiya (Tokyo) to Morioka; July 26, China protests wording of Japanese textbooks (agreement reached September 9); August 7, U.S. brings complaint on restrictions on baseball bats to GATT; August 16, revision of upper house elections passed; October 4–7, yen falls to 276 to dollar, lowest since June 8, 1977; October 12, Suzuki resigns as LDP president; November 24, Nakasone Yasuhiro wins party presidential primary; November 26, Nakasone elected prime minister.

  1983

  January 11–12, Nakasone visits President Chun Doo Hwan in South Korea and promises 4 billion dollars in economic aid; January 17–21, Nakasone visits Washington and declares Japan an unsinkable aircraft carrier; April 15, Tokyo Disneyland opened; April 21, Nakasone visits Yasukuni Shrine in his capacity as prime minister; August 6, Nakasone reasserts three nuclear principles; September 1, Korean Airlines jet with 269 persons on board shot down by Soviets over Sakhalin; October 12, Tanaka sentenced to four years in prison and fines over Lockheed scandal; October 21, package of economic measures to reduce trade surplus; November 9–12, Reagan visits Japan and is first U.S. president to address the Diet; December 18, in general election LDP falls from 286 to 250 seats and needs addition of nine independents to gain majority.

  1984

  April 12, Nikaido Susumu succeeds Tanaka as faction head and becomes vice president of LDP; June 13, All Nippon Airways (ANA) permitted to fly to Hawaii, later to Washington; June 25–27, Japan-U.S. working-level consultations on defense of Hokkaido; August 3, privatization of Tobacco and Salt Public Corporation; September 5, first meeting of prime minister’s Ad Hoc Committee on Education; September 6–8, Chun Doo Hwan makes first visit of Korean president to Japan; November 1, first woman cabinet member in twenty-two years; November 1, Fukuzawa Yukichi, Nitobe Inazo, and Natsume Soseki become chief figures on bank notes; November 4, housewives coalition in Zushi elects mayor opposing U.S. military housing.

  1985

  February 7, Takeshita Noboru founds Diet “study group” to lay base for leadership of Tanaka faction; February 27, Tanaka hospitalized with cerebral apoplexy; March 15, Mikhail Gorbachev named secretary general of Communist party in the Soviet Union; April 1, privatization of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation; May 17, bill for equal opportunities in employment for men and women passed; June 8, Naruto and Awaji bridges across Inland Sea opened to traffic; August 12–13, crash of Boeing 747 with 524 on board; July 17, Supreme Court rules distribution of seats in lower house of Diet unconstitutional; September 18, defense budget set at 1.04 percent of GNP.

  1986

  March 3 and 24, conservationist women win election victories in Zushi; March 11, appeal on Ienaga Saburo textbook case denied and case finally closed; March 28, radicals shoot five home made rockets into imperial palace and American embassy grounds; April 1, Equal Employment Opportunity Law goes into effect; April 4–6, group of seven finance ministers created at Tokyo summit; May 6–12, dollar sinks to 160.2 yen; July 6, LDP wins 300 seats in revised 512-seat lower house, gaining
biggest margin since December 1969; July 14, Abe Shintaro succeeds to leadership of Fukuda faction; July 22, Nakasone elected party president for third term; July 28–30, South Koreans and Chinese demand apology for revisions in Japanese textbooks; August 15, Nakasone abstains from annual visit to the Yasukuni Shrine; August 15, New Liberal Club disbands; September 6, Doi Takako selected as first female secretary general of Socialist party; September 8, Nakasone dismisses education minister Fujio Masayuki for disparaging remarks about Koreans; September 22, Nakasone makes insulting remarks about American minorities, apologizes September 26.

  1987

  January 19, dollar sinks to 150 yen; March 27, stopgap budget adopted because of opposition to proposed value-added tax; April 1, Japanese National Railroad splits into eleven private railroads, six of them major passenger carriers; April 12 and 26, LDP loses heavily in local elections because of proposed value-added tax; April 23, budget passes with value-added tax dropped; May 1, record trade surplus of 101.4 billion dollars; July 1, chairman and president of Toshiba resigns because small subsidiary sold to Soviet Union propeller milling machine on banned COCOM list (Coordinating Committee for Export Controls); July 9, U.S. suspends Toshiba import license in retaliation; July 4, rice support prices cut for first time in thirty-one years; July 4, secession of 113 members of Tanaka faction under Takeshita; August 27, five homemade rockets fired into palace grounds; September 3, three private companies break Nippon Telegraph and Telephone monopoly; October 19, New York stock crash followed by large fall in Tokyo Stock Exchange; October 30, Takeshita selected party president with backing of Nakasone and elected prime minister on November 6; November 3–4, Japan agrees to U.S. participation in construction of Kansai Airport; November 10, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone sells public stocks for first time; November 17, Japan Air Lines is privatized; December 4, Doi reelected secretary general of Socialist party; December, dollar sinks to around 125 yen.

  1988

  February 25, Takeshita attends inauguration of President Roh Tae Woo of South Korea; March 7, Honda ships first American-built Japanese cars to Japan; March 13, Seikan Tunnel between Honshu and Hokkaido begins service; April 15, the Soviet Union agrees to withdraw from Afghanistan; June 26, Uno Sosuki is first foreign minister to visit Jerusalem, urges end of “inhuman acts” toward Arabs and pullout of occupied areas by Israel; July, scandal over insider trading in stocks of real estate subsidiary of Recruit Company starts persistent criticism of Takeshita, Nakasone, and other top politicians because this is considered disguised political contributions; August 12, Takeshita sends letter of apology to American Congressional Black Caucus over slurring remarks by chairman of LDP Policy Board; August 20, a cease-fire goes into effect in the Iran-Iraq war; September 19, the emperor falls seriously ill and his death is expected imminently; November, dollar slides to around 121 yen; November 29, Japan and U.S. agree on joint production of a fighter based on the F-16; December 9, Miyazawa Kiichi, finance minister and deputy prime minister resigns because of implication in Recruit stock scandal.

  1989

  January 1, the American-Canadian free-trade zone goes into effect; January 7, emperor Hirohito dies and his son Akihito succeeds.

  1989–

  HEISEI PERIOD

  1989

  February 24, the new American President, George Bush, attends Hirohito’s funeral; April 28, new budget rammed through after being delayed past April 1 deadline by Recruit scandal; April 28, United States and Japan agree on joint production of FSX fighter planes for Air Self-Defense Force; May 25, the United States labels Japan an “unfair trader”; June 2, Takeshita resigns as prime minister and is succeeded by Uno Sosuke; June 2, American dollar at about 140 yen.

  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

  Before World War II there were few good books on Japan in English, and large areas of its history and culture were scarcely covered at all, but in recent decades books have been pouring from the presses in torrents, making it difficult to choose from among them the few most worthy of being selected for this “Bibliographical Note.” Better this embarrassment of riches than the desert of information that existed not so long ago. I have listed here some of the more significant and readable books. Most of them contain bibliographies, which will lead the reader still further into the various aspects of the subjects they treat. I have cited paperback editions of the books where possible.

  A somewhat more detailed general history of Japan than this present volume is to be found in Japan: Tradition and Transformation (Houghton Mifflin, 1989) by Albert M. Craig and myself. It consists of the Japanese sections, with some amplifications, of a much larger work, East Asia: Tradition and Transformation (Houghton Mifflin, 1973 and 1989), by John K. Fairbank, Edwin O. Reischauer, and Albert M. Craig, in which the chapters on China and Korea afford a useful background for the study of Japan. A classic on the premodern history of Japan is G. B. Sansom’s Japan: A Short Cultural History (revised edition, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962), which is delightfully written and full of illuminating insights. More institutional approaches are to be found in John Whitney Hall, Japan: From Premodern History to Modern Times (Delacorte Press, 1968) and his Government and Local Power in Japan 500–1700: A Study Based on Bizen Province (Princeton, 1966). Sir George Sansom’s three-volume series, which appeared under the overall title of A History of Japan (Stanford, 1958–1963), gives a much more detailed treatment of premodern history than does any of the above books. There is also Bradley Smith’s gorgeous Japan: A History in Art (Simon and Schuster, 1964). A general treatment of Japanese history in brief, together with more detailed considerations of its modern society, politics, economics, and international relations, is to be found in my The Japanese Today: Change and Continuity (Harvard, 1988).

  There is a host of fine books on Japanese art too numerous to attempt to list and an equal abundance of excellent translations of Japanese literature, ranging from the earliest classics to such recent or contemporary authors as Natsume Soseki, Tanizaki Junichiro, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, Abe Kobo, and Oe Kenzaburo. Special mention should be made of the beautiful translation of Japan’s greatest literary work, The Tale of Genji, by Arthur Waley, and his Pillow Book of Lady Sei Shonagon and Noh Plays of Japan, all of which are available in paperback through Doubleday. A more accurate version of The Tale of Genji with equal literary merit to that of Waley has more recently been produced by Edward G. Seidensticker (Knopf, 1977).

  Sources of the Japanese Tradition (Columbia, 1958) is a most useful compendium of translations of primary historical sources, with excellent introductory materials, compiled by William Theodore de Bary, Donald Keene, and Ryusaku Tsunoda. Mention should also be made of Keene’s Anthology of Japanese Literature from the Earliest Era to the Mid-Nineteenth Century (Grove, 1955), and Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature in the Modern Era (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984).

  Particularly large numbers of books have been published on Japanese business and economics in recent years. I have been forced to limit myself to only a very small sampling of these. They are included below with some of the other outstanding works on Japanese history, politics, and society, all arranged in roughly chronological order according to the period of Japanese history with which they deal.

  DONALD L. PHILIPPI, tr., Kojiki (Princeton, 1960).

  ROBERT BORGEN, Sugawara no Michizane and the Early Heian Court, (Harvard, 1986).

  WILLIAM WAYNE FARRIS, Population, Disease, and Land in Early Japan (Harvard, 1985).

  PETER DUUS, Feudalism in Japan (Knopf, 1976).

  JEFFERY P. MASS, Warrior Government in Early Medieval Japan: A Study of the Kamakura Bakufu, Shugo, and Jito (Yale, 1974).

  HELEN CRAIG MCCULLOUGH, tr., The Taiheiki: A Chronicle of Medieval Japan (Columbia, 1959).

  JOHN W. H
ALL AND TOYODA TAKESHI, eds., Japan in the Muromachi Age (California, 1977).

  JOHN W. HALL AND JEFFERY P. MASS, eds., Medieval Japan: Essays in Institutional History (Yale, 1974).

  MARTIN COLCUTT, Five Mountains: The Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan (Harvard, 1980).

  H. PAUL VARLEY, The Onin War (Columbia, 1967).

  MASAYOSHI SUGIMOTO AND DAVID L. SWAIN, Science and Culture in Traditional Japan A.D. 600–1854 (MIT, 1978).

  C. R. BOXER, The Christian Century in Japan, 1549–1650 (California, 1967).

  GEORGE ELISON, Deus Destroyed: The Image of Christianity in Early Modern Japan (Harvard, 1974).

  JOHN WHITNEY HALL, KEIJI NAGAHARA, AND KOZO YAMAMURA, eds., Japan Before Tokugawa: Political Consolidation and Economic Growth (Princeton, 1981).

  MARY ELIZABETH BERRY, Hideyoshi (Harvard, 1982).

  GEORGE ELISON AND BARDWELL L. SMITH, Warlords, Artists, and Commoners (Hawaii, 1981).

  HERMAN OOMS, Tokugawa Ideology: Early Constructs, 1570–1680 (Princeton, 1985).

  JEFFERY P. MASS AND WILLIAM B. HAUSER, eds., The Bakufu in Japanese History (Stanford, 1985).