Introduction

Although the current worldwide depression was first felt in Japan along with the ‘oil shocks’ of the 1970s, to the outside world Japanese society remained immune from the worst of it. Indeed, Japan has been seen as an example of how to avoid the economic, social and political breakdown that a faltering capitalism has elsewhere left in its wake. One reason for this myth is that most scholars who write about Japan tend to present its institutions, particularly its factories, as models for the rest of the world. Many have shared the interests of Japanese capital, which has continually shifted the burden of the crisis onto less vocal workers at home, particularly part-time women, and abroad, mainly in Asia and Latin America. The focus of this book is on the latter displacement: Japan’s new imperialism in Southeast Asia.