Client State

Japan in the American Embrace

Gavan McCormack

• Publisher: Verso
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781844671335
• eBook ISBN:
  9781789603118
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Japan is the world's No. 2 economy, greater in GDP than Britain and France together and almost double that of China. It is also the most durable, generous, and unquestioning ally of the US, attaching priority to its Washington ties over all else. In Client State, Gavan McCormack examines the current transformation of Japan, designed to meet the demands from Washington that Japan become the "Great Britain of the Far East." Exploring postwar Japan's relationship with America, he contends that US pressure has been steadily applied to bring Japan in line with neoliberal principles. The Bush administration's insistence on Japan's thorough subordination has reached new levels, and is an agenda heavily in the American, rather than the Japanese, national interest. It includes comprehensive institutional reform, a thorough revamp of the security and defense relationship with the US, and-alarmingly-vigorous pursuit of Japan's acquisition of nuclear weapons.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• 1. Forever Twelve Years Old?
• 2. The Dependent Superstate
• 3. Dismantling the Japanese Model
• 4. Japan in Bush’s World
• 5. Japan in Asia
• 6. The constitution and the Fundamental Law of Education
• 7. Okinawa: Disposal and Resistance
• 8. Japan as a Nuclear State
• 9. The Schizophrenic State?
• Notes
• Index