Book Review: Japan in Transformation

Jeffrey Kingston. Japan moved from 1952 to 2000. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd., 2001. 230 pages. Over the past 50 years, the interaction between various aspects of Japanese society and its external world has undergone major changes. For example, despite the failure of World War II, Japan quickly became one of Asia's largest economic powers. During the transition of Japan from 1952 to 2000, Geoffrey Kingston focused on various aspects of Japanese social and political change after World War II.

Japan's transformation Between the 1850s and the 1950s, Japan experienced major changes in politics, economics and society. Japan admits the failure of independence and imitates Western attempts to modernize, but still retains its identity. With a more centralized government reorganized, Japan could only industrialize half the time of Western European countries. Industrialization will provide necessary tools to change Japan from home country

The Allied Occupation occupied Japan until 1952, during which the new Constitution was enacted in 1947, and Japan has turned into a constitutional monarchy. After 1955, the economy of Japan grew rapidly, becoming the world economic superpower. Economic stagnation has become a big problem since the 1990s. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused a massive economic turmoil and a serious nuclear accident. The Japanese archipelago of the mountainous region extends from the northeast to the southwest of 3,000 kilometers east of the Asian continent and has four tectonic plates; it experiences about 40 active volcanoes each year and about 1,000 earthquakes. Rapid and steep mountains covering two-thirds of its surface are susceptible to sudden erosion by rapidly moving rivers and debris flows. As a result, they impede internal travel and communication, and encourage people to rely on coastal waters.

There are 108 active volcanoes in Japan. This is 10% of the active volcano in the world. Japan is overlaying volcanoes near the subduction zone of the tectonic plate. In the 20th century, several new volcanoes appeared, including Showa Shinzan in Hokkaido and Meijinso in Bayonsei rock in the Pacific Ocean. In 1991, Yunzhou volcano in Japan, about 40 kilometers east of Nagasaki, woke up from the sleep 200 years ago and created a new lava dome at the top of it. Beginning in June, the erupted dome collapsed repeatedly, creating a flow of ash circling the hill at a speed of up to 200 km / h (120 mph). Unzen broke out in 1792 and killed more than 15,000 people. This is the worst volcanic disaster in the history of the country.