The State and Labor in Modern Japan - Softcover

"A fine book. It offers a remarkable historical interpretation of many unsettled questions on state-society relationships. It amply demonstrates a historian's craft that excels in the organization of specifics to suggest or derive general trends with important implications for the present and future. It also sets a new standard of thoroughness and sophistication for the use of original Japanese sources. . . . Should be required reading for specialists and general readers alike in the interest of proper understanding of Japan."--Koji Taira, "Monumenta Nipponica

In this meticulously researched study, Sheldon Garon examines the evolution of Japan's governmental policies toward labor from the late nineteenth century to the present day, and he substantially revises prevailing views which depict relations between the Japanese state and labor simply in terms of suppression and mutual antagonism.