Rezensionen – Comptes rendus – Reviews

Abstract

The new handbook of modern Japanese studies is a voluminous work that contains five parts (land, history and culture; society; medicine and health care; politics and foreign relations; economy), 33 individual articles and 672 pages in total. To get such a work together is a huge achievement and we have to congratulate James D. Babb as the single editor and the involved staff of SAGE for their immense work and successful persistence. Anybody who ever edited a special issue or an edited volume will feel sympathetic with the editor when he mentions in the acknowledgements that the project has taken a long time and had to get back on track, as well as when he thanks his wife, hoping that she “will hopefully never have to hear [him] talk about this project again” (p. xvii). Still, beyond its biblical dimensions, we have to congratulate James D. Babb foremost for this new handbook because of the quality of its contributors and content. The list of authors reads like a who’s who of leading scholars who have greatly contributed in recent years to our current understanding of Japanese society, economy, and politics. Hence, it is hardly surprising that the articles are, in general, well-balanced introductions to their topics and include at the same time up-to-date information about new developments as well as recent research results and current scholarly debates. It is not possible to do full justice to this state-of-the-art handbook and its many articles in a short book review, but arguably the best way to evaluate this handbook is by comparing its structure with other handbooks, reference works, and scholarly introductions on Japan. After all, in recent years, a large number of such books and new editions have been published in English on Japan’s society (Bester et al. 2011; Hendry 2013; Kreiner et al. 2004; Sugimoto 2014), its economy (Flath 2014), and its politics (Gaunder 2011; Hayes 2009; Hook et al. 2012; Inoguchi/Jain 2011; Shinoda 2013). Moreover, handbooks and introductions on current Japan have also been published in other languages (in German, for example: Kevenhörster et al. 2010) or on specific topics like, for example, Japan’s demographic development (Coulmas et al. 2008), its current critical issues (Kingston 2014) or its contemporary religions (Prohl/Nelson 2012; Swanson/Chilson ASIA 2015; 69(4): 1069–1073