Credit: 1.0 | Prerequisite: Japanese I

This course is an overview of key themes in modern and contemporary Japanese history with an emphasis on the period from the seventeenth to twenty-first centuries. The course concentrates on themes of change and continuity in Japan’s political systems, social and economic institutions, and cultural forms. Specific themes include changing notions of samurai identity, the rise of the modern nation-state, imperialism and interregional relations, postwar prosperity, and Japan’s
“Lost Decade.”