Gender, Nation and State in Modern Japan makes a unique contribution to the international literature on the formation of modern nation-states in its focus on the gendering of the modern Japanese nation-state from the late nineteenth century to the present. References to gender relations are deeply embedded in the historical concepts of nation and nationalism, and in the related symbols, metaphors and arguments. Moreover, the development of the binary opposition between masculinity and femininity and the development of the modern nation-state are processes which occurred simultaneously. They were the product of a shift from a stratified, hereditary class society to a functionally-differentiated social body. This volume includes the work of an international group of scholars from Japan, the United States, Australia and Germany, which in many cases appears in English for the first time. It provides an interdisciplinary perspective on the formation of the modern Japanese nation-state, including comparative perspectives from research on the formation of the modern nation-state in Europe, thus bringing research on Japan into a transnational dialogue. This volume will be of interest in the fields of modern Japanese history, gender studies, political science and comparative studies of nationalism.

About the Author
Andrea Germer is Associate Professor of Gender Studies, Japanese Studies and Visual Culture at Kyushu University and the author of Historische Frauenforschung in Japan [Women's History in Japan], 2003. Research interests include gender and nation, feminist theory, propaganda, visual history and transcultural aesthetics. Vera Mackie is Senior Professor of Asian Studies in the Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts at the University of Wollongong and Research Leader of the Forum on Human Rights Research. She has published widely on cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies and feminist history. Ulrike Woehr is Professor of Japanese Studies and Gender Studies at Hiroshima City University and the author of Frauen zwischen Rollenerwartung and Selbstdeutung [Women between Role-Expectations and Self-Representation], a historical reading of Japanese feminist thought of the 1910s. Research interests include gender and feminism in modern Japan from a transnational perspective.

Reviews

"Gender, Nation, and State in Modern Japan offers richly complex views of the forces and individuals shaping modern Japan. This volume will surely inspire conversation on the gendered politics of Japan as well as other nation-states for years to come."

Jan Bardsley University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Japan Forum, 27:3, 411-414

"In general, the reader comes away from this book with a much more complex picture of the roles and positions of women and men from the beginning of the Meiji Era up to post-bubble economically struggling 2000s Japan. Much of the literature that considers the development of modern nation-states does not take into account the gendering of the processes involved. What is presented as unbiased and gender neutral is in fact highly gendered-it is usually based on the experiences andstories of particular men. This book does a wonderful job of addressing the gap in the literature to inform us of the complexities of how women and men were affected and exploited in various and
different ways in Japan's pursuit of modernity."

Emma Dalton LaTrobe University

Social Science Japan Journal, vol 19, no 1, January 2016 109

"This is a volume no student of gender or of the historical formation of the modern Japanese nation-state should fail to read... The editors do an excellent job of rendering the translated chapters into accessible English. This volume will be of interest both to scholars and to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of Japanese gender studies and political history."

Barbara Molony, Santa Clara University,

Journal of Japanese Studies

Book Information
ISBN 9781138573703
Author Andrea Germer
Format Paperback
Page Count 336
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g