Asian Studies

Follow

• 

  Growing Democracy in Japan: The Parliamentary Cabinet System since 1868

  The world’s third largest economy and a stable democracy, Japan remains a significant world power; but its economy has become stagnant, and its responses to the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011 and the nuclear crisis that followed have raised international concerns. Despite being constitutionally modeled on Great Britain’s “Westminster”-style parliamentary democracy, Japan has failed to fully institute a cabinet-style government, and its executive branch is not empowered to successfully respond to the myriad challenges confronted by an advanced postindustrial society.

  In Growing Democracy in Japan, Brian Woodall compares the Japanese cabinet system to its counterparts in other capitalist ...Read More

• 

  Illustrated Atlas of the Himalaya

  The Himalaya are world-renowned for their exquisite mountain scenery, ancient traditions, and diverse ethnic groups that tenaciously inhabit this harsh yet sublime landscape. Home to the world’s highest peaks, including Mount Everest, and some of its deepest gorges, the region is a trove of biological and cultural diversity. Providing a panoramic overview of contemporary land and life in the Earth’s highest mountains, the Illustrated Atlas of the Himalaya is the first full-color, comprehensive atlas of the geography, economics, politics, and culture of this spectacular area.

  Drawing from the authors’ twenty-five years of scholarship and field experience in the region, the ...Read More

• 

  Japan in the 21st Century: Environment, Economy, and Society

  The ancient civilization of Japan, with its Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, is also closely associated with all that is new and modern. Looking outward, Japan sees what it has become since Hiroshima: the world’s second-largest economy, a source of fury and wonder, a power without arms. Looking inward, Japan sees old ways shaken and new ones developing at a hectic pace. Japan in the Twenty-first Century offers compelling insights into the current realities of the country and investigates the crucial political, economic, demographic, and environmental challenges that face the nation. A combination of text, maps, and photographs provides an ...Read More

• 

  H.B. Morse, Customs Commissioner and Historian of China

  Hosea Ballou Morse (1855-1934) sailed to China in 1874, and for the next thirty-five years he labored loyally in the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs Service, becoming one of its most able commissioners and acquiring a deep knowledge of China's economy and foreign relations. After his retirement in 1909, Morse devoted himself to scholarship. He pioneered in the Western study of China's foreign relations, weaving from the tangled threads of the Ch'ing dynasty's foreign affairs several seminal interpretive histories, most notably his three-volume magnum opus, The International Relations of the Chinese Empire (1910-18).

  At the time of his death, Morse was ...Read More

• 

  Indonesia: Resources and Their Technological Development

  The need to find solutions to the grave economic and political problems faced by Indonesia presents a constant challenge. In this volume, scholars in a variety of fields study a broad spectrum of the problems of this new nation. Their overall focus centers on Indonesia’s land and population with emphasis on the most efficient means of developing physical and human resources.

  Howard W. Beers is director of the Center for Developmental Change and Distinguished Professor of Rural Sociology at the University of Kentucky. He lived for six years in Bogor, Indonesia, as visiting professor at the Agricultural University and as ...Read More