Modern Japan’s Place in World History

This Open Access book includes chapters on the key turning points in modern Japanese history from the Meiji Restoration to Japan-China diplomatic normalization in the 1970s and beyond. The topics covered include the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War, the First and Second World Wars, the Manchurian Crisis, the US Occupation, postwar Japan-China relations, and postwar decolonization. Readers will learn how new research by Japanese historians has led to the revision of conventional views on the turbulent history of Japan, once the enemy of the United States in the war in the Asia-Pacific and now the US’s closest ally in the region.

Historical research on the modern history of Japan has been constantly updated. From the Meiji Restoration to the present day, Japan has experienced the effects of modernization and globalization. Recent historical inquiries in Japan tend to focus on the merging of modern history with global history. During the past 150 years, Japan has never been separated from events in international affairs. Scholars and general readers will appreciate the new factual details and philosophical perspectives that this volume provides drawing on the work of fourteen authors who are recognized leaders in their fields. 

Yuichi Hosoya is Professor of International Politics at Keio University. Masayuki Yamauchi is Specially Appointed Professor at the Musashino University Institute for Global Affairs and Professor Emeritus, the University of Tokyo.

Masayuki Yamauchi

Specially appointed professor affiliated with the Musashino University Institute for Global Affairs, visiting professor at the Mohammed V University in Morocco, and professor emeritus of the University of Tokyo. Born in Sapporo in 1947, he completed a doctoral course at the Hokkaido University Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences, but obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Tokyo. Awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon and Shiba Ryotaro Prize, he is the author of many award-winning books, including The Dream of Sultan Galiev: The Islamic World and the Russian Revolution (Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities); Radical History (Yoshino Sakuzō Prize); The Dying Leviathan: Perestroika and the Nationalities Question in Soviet Central Asia (Mainichi Publication Cultural Prize); and The Iwanami Encyclopedia of Islam (co-editor; Mainichi Publication Cultural Prize).

Yuichi Hosoya

Professor of International Politics, Keio University.  Professor Hosoya studied international politics at Rikkyo (BA), Birmingham (MIS), and Keio (Ph.D.).  He was a visiting professor and Japan Chair (2009–2010) at Sciences-Po in Paris (Institut d’Études Politiques), a visiting fellow (Fulbright Fellow, 2008–2009) at Princeton University, and Visiting Fellow at Downing College, the University of Cambridge (2021-2022). His research interests include the postwar international history, British diplomatic history, Japanese foreign and security policy, and contemporary East Asian international politics. His most recent publications include Security Politics: Legislation for a New Security Environment (Tokyo: JPIC, 2019); History, Memory & Politics in Postwar Japan (Co-editor, Lynne Rienner: Boulder, 2020); and “Japan’s Security Policy in East Asia”, in Yul Sohn and T.J. Pempel (eds.), Japan and Asia’s Contested Order: The Interplay of Security, Economics, and Identity (Palgrave, 2018).