
The State of the Japanese State
Contested Identity, Direction and Role
Gavan McCormack(Author)
Renaissance Books (Publisher)
Published on 1. June 2018
Book
Hardback
266 pages
978-1-898823-71-1 (ISBN)
Description
In this his latest work, Gavan McCormack argues that Abe Shinzo's efforts to re-engineer the Japanese state may fail, but his radicalism continues to shake the country and will have consequences not easy now to predict. The significance of this book will be widely recognized, particularly by those researching contemporary world politics, international relations and the history of modern Japan. McCormack here revisits and reassesses his previous formulations of Japan as construction state (doken kokka), client state (zokkoku), constitutional pacifist state, and colonial state (especially in its relationship to Okinawa). He adds a further chapter on what he calls the 'rampant state', that outlines the increasingly authoritarian or ikkyo (one strong) turn of the Abe government in the fifth year of its second term. And he critically addresses the Abe agenda for constitutional revision.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Folkestone
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Global Oriental Ltd
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Academic
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 145 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
472 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-898823-71-1 (9781898823711)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
approx. 12/2025
1st Edition
Routledge
€67.50
Not yet published

E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download

E-Book
10/2025
Routledge
€60.49
Available for download
Person
Gavan McCormack is Emeritus Professor, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. In 2008 he was jointly awarded (on behalf Japan Focus) Ryukyu shimpo's Inaugural Ikemiyagi Shui prize for promotion of international understanding of Okinawan issues. His published works (including translated and edited volumes) are considerable. In 2007, he published Client State: Japan in the American Embrace, and most recently (2018), co-authored with Satoko Oka Norimatsu, the second, revised, paperback edition of Resistant Islands: Okinawa versus Japan and the United States. Gavan McCormack is Emeritus Professor, School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University. In 2008 he was jointly awarded (on behalf Japan Focus) Ryukyu shimpo's Inaugural Ikemiyagi Shui prize for promotion of international understanding of Okinawan issues. His published works (including translated and edited volumes) are considerable. In 2007, he published Client State: Japan in the American Embrace, and most recently (2018), co-authored with Satoko Oka Norimatsu, the second, revised, paperback edition of Resistant Islands: Okinawa versus Japan and the United States.
Content
Preface, 1. The Improbable Package, 2. The Client State, 3. The Client State's Client State, 4. Okinawa, 5. Around the East [China] Sea, 6. The Construction State, 7. The Constitutional State, 8. The Rampant State, 9. Conclusion, Afterword, Index