Modern Japan

Modern Japan is a volume in Oxford University Press's Very Short Introductions series, written by Christopher Goto-Jones, a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands specializing in modern Japan. The Chinese translation is by Gu Xinyuan, published by Yilin Press in 2014, with a preface by the writer Mao Danqing, who lives in Japan. The book revolves around one central question: what does it actually mean to call Japan a "modern" society? And what does the word "modern" mean to Japanese people in different periods and belonging to different groups? The author does not treat Japan's modernization as mere imitation of the Western model, but describes Japan's course since the mid-nineteenth century as a repeated, complex, and creative engagement with the elements of "modernity": from Perry's opening of Japan and the collapse of the Tokugawa order, to the Meiji Restoration's reconstruction of state institutions, the military, and education; from Taisho-era party politics and social change, to the wartime discourse and practice of "overcoming modernity" in the Showa years; and then to the postwar high-speed economic growth, the formation of a consumer society, and contemporary Japan's ongoing debate over its identity as a "normal country" and over historical memory. The author particularly emphasizes the continuity of Japanese society before and after the Pacific War, opposing the simple view of 1945 as a complete break, and offers a detailed analysis of the contradictions and divided mentality in postwar Japan's self-perception. As an introductory reader, the book is concise; beyond the main text it includes an index and the original English text, allowing readers to learn the outlines of modern Japanese history while reading bilingually.