Japan and the Specter of Imperialism

Japan and the Specter of Imperialism examines competing Japanese responses to the late nineteenth century unequal treaty regime as a confrontation with liberal imperialism, including the culture and gender politics of U.S. territorial expansion into the Pacific. The book examines how both the unequal treaties and Japanese legal reform served to impose and then incorporate the logic of market capitalism within a distinctly Japanese social order. It reveals that competing concepts of domesticity figured centrally in naturalizing capitalism in Japan and rationalizing Japan’s own expansion. The unequal treaty regime is situated as a precursor of contemporary neoliberal practices such as economic development zones and U.S. status of forces agreements.