No description available.

This study aims to ask whether the Japanese state was capable of responding to a challenge from international labour migration as a force of globalisation. and to consider the significance of the subsequent change in the relation between state transformation and the realisation of social justice within the context of globalisation. The focal point of the study is Japan's criminal justice system in the 1990s, with particular attention to the `language barrier', namely legal and political problems that affect foreigners and state officials. The study analyses how the language barrier emerged in Japan, how it influenced the state, and how state and civil society actors reacted to address the problem. This theoretical and empirical study in International Relations and International Political Economy takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing insights from Sociology and Gender Studies concerning international labour migration. Documentary research on secondary and tertiary documents of Japan's state and civil society actors has been complemented by sixteen semi-structured interviews with those who were involved in the process of tackling the language barrier. The study argues that, by introducing judicial interpreters over the decade and with inputs from civil society actors, the Japanese state was able to reduce the extent of constraints posed by the language barrier on its ability to control crime. This indicates that an internal sector of the Japanese state that is in charge of political matters, namely law enforcement, has been able to largely solve the challenge of the language barrier, which is a manifestation of international economic force. This study thus counters the claim of the Hyperglobalist thesis of globalisation concerning loss or decline in capability of the state, and extends the plausibility of the Transformationalist thesis in terms of geographical area and the issues analysed.

Development aid has long been a major policy tool of the discourse and policy practiceof bilateral and multilateral donors alike. Originally used for servicing the reconstructionof post-war economies and the wider geo-political aspirations of the period, moderndevelopment aid was quickly transformed to an ever-growing industry which hasexpanded to the most remote locations of the globe. Large countries and internationalorganisations swiftly set up a variety of specialised agencies, institutes and researchcentres in order to promote their aid programmes and projects to the poor countries ofthe South. The persistent failure of the development industry to achieve substantialresults in the poorest regions of the world has meant that discourse and priority areashave been redirected multiple times according to the trends of every period. However, itis not clear how far development practice actually alters in correspondence with changesin aid discourse. This dissertation provides an empirical study of the relationshipbetween the two in the context of the move to bottom-up 'partnership' discourse andJapan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) development practise in Ghana. During the last ten years Ghana has geared its development policies towards achievingthe Millennium Development Goals and entering the group of countries classified ashaving (lower) middle-income status. Major donor agencies like JICA have gathered inthe country to provide their 'expertise' and to 'assist' Ghana in reaching the targets ofthe Millennium Declaration. Drawing from two JICA case studies of TechnicalCooperation for Capacity Development in Ghana in health and education this thesissheds light on the differences between JICA's aid rhetoric and practice. This studyargues that despite JICA's aid discourse for a 'demand-driven', 'relevant' and'participatory' aid understanding, its implementation practice contradicts the substantivenormative meanings of these terms and is instead reticent of the past orthodox and 'topdown'aid practices of big donor countries and organisations.