Dismantling Developmentalism: Japan’s Political and Economic Struggles After Achieving Success

Dismantling Developmentalism: Japan’s Political and Economic Struggles After Achieving Success

T. J. Pempel - Jack M. Forcey Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

Monday, April 11, 2016 - 4:45pm to 6:00pm
Auditorium, Henry R. Luce Hall See map
34 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511
The Council is pleased to present the Seventeenth Annual John W. Hall Lecture in Japanese Studies.

From the early 1950s until the early 1990s Japan’s political economy was distinguished by its reinforcing combination of conservative political dominance and superior economic growth. The two operated in tandem: economic growth boosted the political appeal of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDPwhile long term conservative dominance facilitated hyper- growth. A close economic and security relationship between Japan and the United States furthered this winning package of ‘developmentalism.’ Yet, conducive external conditions shifted once the capitalist-communist bipolarity ended and global finance shattered Japan’s greenhouse economic practices. Simultaneously, forty years of developmental success unleashed a torrent of domestic demographic, economic and political forces no longer content with past practices. Nevertheless, well-entrenched powers and procedures proved highly resistant to numerous adaptations that might have spurred renewed economic growth and political creativity. Professor Pempel’s lecture will explore the interconnections between the successes of the past, the failures of the present, and the challenges that Japan continues to confront.


T. J. Pempel is the Jack M. Forcey Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He has been on the Berkeley faculty since 2001. He has also held positions at Cornell University, the University of Colorado, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Washington. From 2001 until 2006 he was the director of Berkeley’s Institute of East Asian Studies. He is a presidential appointee to the Japan U.S. Friendship Commission. His research focuses on comparative politics, Japanese political economy, and Asian regional issues. He has published over 120 articles and 24 books. Recent books include Security Cooperation in Northeast Asia (Routledge, 2012); The Economic-Security Nexus in Northeast Asia (Routledge, 2013), and Japan in Crisis (ASAN, 2013) and, in 2015, a co-edited volume with Keiichi Tsunekawa entitled Two Crises; Different Reactions: East Asia and Global Finance (Cornell UP) that examines why Asia was so badly devastated by the crisis of 1997-98 but in 2008-2009 did so well compared to Europe and the U.S.


The John W. Hall Lecture Series in Japanese Studies was established with generous support from Mrs. Robin Hall in memory of her husband.  Considered one of this past century’s finest scholars of the history of Japan, John Whitney Hall was born in Tokyo in 1916 and developed an interest in Japanese language, culture, and history at an early age.  After receiving his Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Harvard, Hall began his academic career at the University of Michigan in 1949 and came to Yale in 1961 as A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History, a position he held until his retirement in 1983.

Professor Hall specialized in the Ashikaga through Late Tokugawa periods, and throughout his career he wrote or edited some of the most important and influential volumes on Japanese history.  He contributed to the study of Japan through not only his writing, but also through service as chair of several local and national committees, including the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, the Association for Asian Studies, and the American Council of Learned Societies-Social Science Research Council (ACLS-SSRC) Joint Committee on Japanese Studies.

The Council on East Asian Studies hopes this lecture series will enable young and old scholars alike to remember John Whitney Hall’s work and grand contributions to the study of Japan.

 
Region: 
Japan