Japanese Modernity and Welfare: State, Civil Society and Self in Contemporary Japan

This book explores the anatomy of Japanese welfare in the context of the constellation of modernity and capitalism, with a focus on the normative status of welfare and the sources of its legitimation within civil society. Drawing on a neo-Hegelian understanding of the constitution of subjectivity within political economy, the book uncovers a distinctive pattern of welfare provision in modern Japan: the generous provision of goods that meet production-related social ends in contrast with the relative paucity of goods that satisfy individuated want. The historical mapping of this pattern – from the early modern period in the Meiji era to the contemporary neoliberal turn in recessionary Japan - illustrates the idea of the 'social limits of the market', central not only to understanding the distinctive nature of welfare in contemporary Japan, but also to rethinking the notion of welfare under conditions of late capitalism at a global level.