Suchergebnisse

Japan is one of the most media-saturated societies in the world. The circulations of its "big five" national newspapers dwarf those of any major American newspaper. NHK, its public service broadcasting agency, is second only to the BBC in size. And it has a full range of commercial television stations, high-brow and low-brow magazines (from widely read intellectual journals to the ubiquitous manga, or adult comic books), and a large antimainstream media and mini-media. Japanese elites, surveys show, rate the mass media as the most influential group in Japanese society. But what role do they play in political life? Whose interests do the media serve? As Japan's critics often hold, are they mainly servants of the state? Or are they watchdogs on behalf of the public, as the media themselves claim and as suggested by their role in uncovering late eighties and early nineties political scandals and in triggering political change in the summer of 1993? And what effects do the media have on the political beliefs and behavior of ordinary Japanese people? These questions, central for interpreting the media's role in any industrial society, are the focus of this collection of essays by leading political scientists, sociologists, social psychologists, and journalists. Japan's unique kisha (press) club system, its powerful media business organizations, the uses of the media by Japan's wily bureaucrats, and the role of the media in everything from political scandals to shaping public opinion, are among the many subjects of this insightful and provocative book

Koizumi Junichiro, Japan's prime minister from 2001 to 2006, broke the mould of post-war Japanese foreign policy. His successor Abe Shinzo looks set to build upon this legacy: after the 'depression diplomacy' of the 1990s Japan has returned as a diplomatic and military as well as economic power. The United States has welcomed and encouraged this development, but it may get more than it bargained for. Japan is certainly re-emerging as a more confident partner, but it could also become more erratic, demanding and unpredictable. (Survival / SWP)

The study of political socialization has long neglected the influence of adult roles on adult political belief and behavior, in favor of attention to the supposedly formative experiences of childhood and adolescence. Similarly, although we have numerous studies of the background and politicization of the student activists of the 1960s, we have almost no systematic evidence of how the leftism and activism of their college years has weathered the transition to adulthood. This article presents a study of the relative effects of adult role experience—occupation, family, and voluntary associational membership—versus the enduring influence of college political beliefs and participation on samples of student activists and nonactivists of the 1960s in the United States and Japan. Citing the methodological weaknesses of earlier political socialization research, the authors use true longitudinal data and causal modeling and multivariate data analysis techniques. The results indicate that, although college identification and behavior continued to some extent into adulthood, adult role socialization also had strong and independent effects, but effects that varied greatly across the two countries. Differences in adult role cultures in the United States and Japan are used to explain these cross-national variations and their consequences for patterns of political protest in the two countries.

Career experiences and political views of individuals who were college student activists in the 1960's.