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Author Leheny, David, author

Title Think Global, Fear Local : Sex, Violence, and Anxiety in Contemporary Japan / David Leheny
Published Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2018]
©2009

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Description 1 online resource : 7 halftones, 1 chart/graph
Contents Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- JAPANESE TERMS AND CDNVENTIDNS -- ABBREVIATIONS -- Chapter One. Fear, Norms, and Politics in Contemporary Japan -- Chapter Two. A "Vague Anxiety" in 1990' s Japan -- Chapter Three. "Whatever It Is, It's Bad, So Stop It" -- Chapter Four. Guidance, Protection, and Punishment in Japan's Child Sex Laws -- Chapter Five. Trust in Japan, Not in Counterterrorism -- Chapter Six. The Self-Fulfilling Afterthought -- Chapter Seven. Local Scapegoats and Other Unintended Consequences -- Notes -- Index
Summary In 1999, responding to international concerns about the sexual exploitation of children, the Japanese Diet voted unanimously to ban child prostitution and child pornography. Two years later, in the wake of 9/11, Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet radically shifted government counterterrorism policy toward new military solutions, and away from an earlier emphasis on law enforcement. Although they seem unrelated, these two policies reveal the unintended consequences of attempts to enforce international norms at the national level.In Think Global, Fear Local, David Leheny posits that when states abide by international agreements to clamp down on transnational crime and security concerns, they respond not to an amorphous international problem but rather to more deeply held and proximate fears.Although opponents of child prostitution and pornography were primarily concerned about the victimization of children in poor nations by wealthy foreigners, the Japanese law has been largely used to crack down on "compensated dating," in which middle-class Japanese schoolgirls date and sometimes have sex with adults. Many Japanese policymakers viewed these girls as villains, and subsequent legal developments have aimed to constrain teenage sexual activities as well as to punish predatory adults. Likewise, following changes in the country's counterterrorism policy, some Japanese leaders have redefined a host of other threats-especially from North Korea-as "terrorist" menaces requiring a more robust and active Japanese military.Drawing from sources as diverse as parliamentary debate records and contemporary film and literature, Leheny uses these two very different cases to argue that international norms can serve as political tools, allowing states to enhance their coercive authority
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. [193]-220) and index
Notes In English
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2019)
Subject Fear -- Social aspects -- Japan
Sex -- Social aspects -- Japan
Violence -- Social aspects -- Japan
POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General.
Social conditions.
Fear -- Social aspects.
Sex -- Social aspects.
Violence -- Social aspects.
SUBJECT Japan -- Social conditions -- 1945- http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85069578
Subject Japan.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781501727580
1501727583
0801444187
9780801444180