Dear SSJ-Forum subscribers,

We are pleased to announce that the latest issue of Social Science Japan Journal (vol 23 no 2) is now available online: https://academic.oup.com/ssjj/issue/23/2

This special issue features four articles that significantly build on work recently published in Japanese for the authoritative Iwanami Series on Japanese economic history. Nakabayashi Masaki, Fukao Kyoji, Takashima Masanori, and Nakamura Naofumi present a continuous estimate of Japan's economic performance from the 8th century to the Meiji Restoration, substantially updating the Iwanami Series GDP estimate for the medieval period and constructing an annual series for the early modern period. This new research effectively replaces the widely-cited estimate of GDP by Angus Maddison. Saito Osamu's article explores the underlying social mechanisms behind GDP growth in the medieval period. Fukao Kyoji, Makino Tastuji, and Settsu Tokihiko follow up with a comprehensive analysis of growth after the Meiji Restoration, while Morimoto Mayo's article examines the use of hankō (seals) by job applicants as a signal of work ethic in the early 20th century mining industry.

Also in this issue: Iwona Merklejn and Jan Wiślicki employ linguistic analysis to evaluate the increasingly polarized positions of the five national Japanese newspapers on the issue of hate speech. An article by Benjamin Bansal evaluates factors contributing to the success of small factories in postwar Tokyo. Finally, a survey article by Michael Kolmas and David Kozisek evaluates the current state of the international relations discipline via analyses of seven leading IR journals and IR curricula at four major Japanese universities.


Table of Contents

SPECIAL ISSUE: ECONOMIC HISTORY OF JAPAN

A Rehabilitation of the Institutional Approach to Japanese Economic History: Introduction to the Special Issue
Susumu CATO and Masaki NAKABAYASHI
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa024

Property Systems and Economic Growth in Japan, 730-1874
Masaki NAKABAYASHI, Kyoji FUKAO, Masanori TAKASHIMA, and Naofumi NAKAMURA
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa023

Structural Change, Capital Deepening, and TFP Growth in Japan: 1885-1970
Kyoji FUKAO, Tatsuji MAKINO, and Tokihiko SETTSU
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa014

The Medieval Origins of Smithian Growth: The Proliferation of Occupations and Commodities in Japan, 1261-1638
Osamu SAITO
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa003

Inkan Seals as Tools of Labor Selection in Early 20th Century Mining
Mayo MORIMOTO
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa025

GENERAL ARTICLES
Hate Speech and the Polarization of Japanese National Newspapers
Iwona MERKLEJN and Jan WIŚLICKI
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa015

Urban Space as a Factor of Production: Accounting for the Success of Small Factories in Postwar Tokyo
Benjamin BANSAL
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa013

SURVEY ARTICLE
A Sociological Survey of Japanese International Relations Journals and University Education: Still a Discipline 'In Between'?
Michal KOLMAŠ and David KOZISEK
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa005

BOOK REVIEWS

Peak Japan: The End of Great Ambitions
Gunnar MOKOSCH
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa007

Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo
Till KNAUDT
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa020

Gun to shiteno jieitai: PSI sanka to nihon no anzen hoshō seisaku (Self-Defense Force as Armed Forces: PSI Participations and Japan's Security Policies)
Hidekazu SAKAI
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa008

Japan Rearmed: The Politics of Military Power
Corey WALLACE
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa018

National Identity and Japanese Revisionism: Abe Shinzō's Vision of a Beautiful Japan and Its Limits
Ulv HANSSEN
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa016

Japan in der Ära Abe: Eine politikwissenschaftliche Studie
Patrick HEIN
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa019

Sino-Japanese Power Politics: Might, Money and Minds
Antoine ROTH
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa011

Nation-Empire: Ideology and Rural Youth Mobilization in Japan and Its Colonies
Brian TSUI
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa012

Hegemony and the US-Japan Alliance
Thomas WILKINS
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa006

The EU-Japan Partnership in the Shadow of China: The Crisis of Liberalism
Andrea A FISCHETTI
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa009

Seisansei: gokai to shinjitsu (Productivity: Misconceptions and Realities)
Toshiyuki MATSUURA
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa021

Shin-nihon no kaikyū shakai (New Class Society in Japan)
Naoki SUDO
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa017

Kōtō kyōiku kikai no chiiki kakusa: Chihō ni okeru kōkōsei no daigaku shingaku kōdō (Regional Disparities in Opportunities for Higher Education: University Enrollment Behavior among High School Students in Rural Areas)
Sho FUJIHARA
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa002

An Anthropology of the Machine: Tokyo's Commuter Train Network
Christopher P HOOD
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa004

Soka Gakkai's Human Revolution: The Rise of a Mimetic Nation in Modern Japan
Clark CHILSON
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa010

Intimate Japan: Ethnographies of Closeness and Conflict
Kimio ITO
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa022

Lectures on Japanese Law from a Comparative Perspective
Kota FUKUI
https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyaa001

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SSJJ publishes high-quality, refereed scholarly articles on modern Japan. All social science disciplines (anthropology, economics, history, law, political science, and sociology) are welcomed, including studies of Japan's international relations and comparisons with other countries.

All submissions (general articles, survey articles, review essays, and book reviews) must be submitted electronically through ScholarOne, the online submissions platform used by Oxford University Press. Visit our submissions page: https://academic.oup.com/ssjj/pages/General_Instructions

Dr. Meredith Shaw
Managing Editor, Social Science Japan Journal
Associate Professor, Institute of Social Science
University of Tokyo