After war defeat in 1945, Japan underwent historic political, economic and social transformations resulting in the country’s rebirth as an economic powerhouse and exemplar of liberal democracy in East Asia. This handbook expands and enriches our understanding of this tumultuous contemporary era in Japan’s modern history. Chapters in the volume ask novel theoretical questions and present fresh empirical perspectives on the era. How, for example, has the postwar era been chronologized to date and how might we rethink or enhance such interpretations? What can we learn by rethinking established moments and phases like the Allied Occupation, the period of high-speed economic growth, the 1970s, the Bubble Economy, and the “lost decades” of Heisei Japan (1989-2019)? What new issues might we introduce to subvert accepted understandings of the postwar era and its various sub-eras? Moreover, how might Japan’s internal postwar be expanded by rethinking the era through novel historical frameworks and regional imaginaries such as East Asian history, Cold War history, environmental history and transnational history? Contributors attempt to transcend temporal, geographical, intellectual and other boundaries inherent in our current understandings of Japan’s postwar experience to provide a compelling compilation of perspectives. Showcasing the work of historians and leading scholars from other disciplines, chapters cover thematic areas including the origins of the postwar era, postwar politics, society and popular culture, transnational and international interactions, and historical memory. The volume’s extensive chronological coverage, combined with the innovative perspectives of the contributors, make it essential reading for both researchers and learners interested in the multifaceted dynamics of Japan’s fascinating contemporary era.

Simon Avenell is professor at the Australian National University. He specializes in modern Japanese history, with a particular interest in civil society, social activism, and the history of ideas in postwar Japan. His latest book, Asia and Postwar Japan: Deimperialization, Civic Activism, and National Identity, was published by Harvard University Press in 2022.

Introduction: Imagining Japan’s Postwar Era (Simon Avenell);
Part 1: The Origins of the Postwar.
Ch. 1 Rethinking Imperial Legacies and the Cold War in Allied Occupied Japan (Deokhyo Choi);
Ch. 2 Money, Banking, and Fiscal Reforms in Allied Occupied Japan, 1945–1952 (Simon James Bytheway);
Part 2: The Political Postwar.
Ch. 3 Arguing with Public Opinion: Polls and Postwar Democracy (Adam Bronson);
Ch. 4 Japanese Postwar Political History from Left to Right (James Babb);
Ch. 5 Nationalism under the Banner of Pacifism: Japanese Atomic Bombing Sufferers’ Struggle against the State (Akiko Naono);
Ch. 6 Living with and Fighting against the Postwar Regime: Conservatism and Constitution in Postwar Japan (Christian G. Winkler);
Part 3: Postwar Culture and Society. Ch. 7 Gendering Postwar Japan (Emily Chapman and Helen Macnaughtan);
Ch. 8 Uncertain Futures, Destabilized Dreams (Eiko Maruko Siniawer);
Ch. 9 Education in Japan Since 1945: Equality, Hierarchy, and Competition (Peter Cave);
Ch. 10 From Raincoats to Ketchup: The Encroachment of Plastics during the High-growth Era (1955–1973) (Katarzyna J. Cwiertka);
Ch. 11 Birds and Children as Barometers of Japan’s Postwar Environmental History (Janet Borland);
Ch. 12 Japan’s Got Talent: The Rise of Tarento in Japanese Television Culture (Seong Un Kim);
Part 4: The Transnational Postwar.
Ch. 13 Postwar Japanese Feminism in Transnational Perspective (Julia C. Bullock);
Ch. 14 Postwar Japanese History Seen through the Science of Reproductive and Population Politics (Aya Homei);
Part 5: Japan’s Postwar in Asia and the World.
Ch. 15 Japan’s American Alliance: Forgoing Autonomy for Deterrence (H.D.P. Envall);
Ch. 16 The Endless Postwar: Okinawa at the Modern Frontier (Luke Franks);
Ch. 17 International Orders, Territorial Problems and Japan’s Identity (Kimie Hara);
Ch. 18 Manga, National Identity and Internationalization in Postwar Japan (Rebecca Suter);
Part 6: Defining, Delineating, Historicizing, and Chronologizing the Postwar Era.
Ch. 19 Discourses of War and Peace during Japan’s “Postwar” (Philip Seaton);
Ch. 20 Postwar in the Post-Cold War: Postwar in the Heisei Era (Eiji Oguma)