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This book locates the development of D¿wa policy projects within their historical and political context, offering examples of human rights protection in a non-Western society.
List of contents
1. Dōwa Policy Projects and the problems for which they were a solution 2. Approaches to the Problem 3. A brief review of modern Buraku history and the formation of Yūwa policy 4. From Occupation to the new Ten Year Plan: Dōwa policy and the reconstruction of Japanese politics, 1945-60 5. From the Shingikai to the Special Measures Law – the formation of the Dōwa projects policy in the 1960s 6. Implementation I: the Dōwa policy process at the national level 7. Implementation II: spending on Dōwa policy projects by the main ministries 8. Implementation III: how Dōwa policy was implemented locally: examples from Osaka, Nara and Fukuoka prefectures 9. Corrupt practices? A comment on yakuza involvement 10. Conclusions
About the author
Ian Neary is an emeritus fellow of the Nissan Institute and St Antony’s College at Oxford University. He has previously published Human Rights in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, 2002 and The Buraku Issue in Modern Japan: the career of Matsumoto Jiichiro, 2010. The second edition of his textbook, The State and Politics in Japan, was published in 2019.
Summary
This book locates the development of Dōwa policy projects within their historical and political context, offering examples of human rights protection in a non-Western society.
Charting Dōwa policy from its origins in the pre-war period to its revival after 1945 up to the turn of the 21st century, chapters in this study provide a social and historical review supplemented by detailed analyses of policy process and implementation at both national and local levels. No previous publication on the ‘Buraku Problem’ has focused on the direct impact of Dōwa policy in overcoming prejudice and economic inequalities. Topics covered range from left-wing Buraku Liberation League demands in the late 1950s, the Special Measures Law for Dōwa Policy Projects (SML) in the 1960s, and the evolution of a human rights based Dōwa policy into the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Through its evaluation of the relative successes and failures to improve local infrastructure and opportunities for marginal communities, this book invites comparative analysis with policies in other Asian and Western polities which seek to mitigate descent-based and racial discrimination.
Dōwa Policy and Japanese Politics will prove a valuable resource for students and scholars of international relations, human rights, politics, and Japanese studies.
