Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-161). / Microfiche. / xiii, 161 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

Typescript. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1978. / Bibliography: leaves [216]-224. / Microfiche. / iv, 224 leaves

Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 77-82). / Electronic reproduction. / Also available by subscription via World Wide Web / ix, 82 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-112). / iv, 112 leaves, bound ill., maps 29 cm

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-127). / vi, 127 leaves, bound 29 cm

The intent of this study is to assess the role of fundamental Japanese security policy objectives in driving the significant shifts in Japan???s approach towards missile defence cooperation with the United States from 1993 to 2003. In studying the relative influence of the objectives that guided Japan???s approach towards missile defence cooperation, this thesis seeks to address a gap in the literature. A debate has occurred over the direction of Japanese security policy that is based on widely different assumptions on the importance attached to various fundamental security objectives. At the same time, Japan???s approach to missile defence has been the subject of considerable analysis that identified the crucial importance of the issue for the attainment of these fundamental security policy objectives. But no linkage has been established between these two levels of analysis. In particular, there has been an absence of assessments of what Japan???s decisions on missile defence cooperation indicate about the relative influence of the various objectives. This thesis developed an analytical framework to enable such an assessment by examining the structure of missile defence cooperation undertaken. Japan possessed a range of options in the level and type of involvement in missile defence cooperation. That involvement would determine the eventual type of benefits and costs incurred against the affected objectives. Cooperation agreed to (or rejected) over the ten year period thereby provides a means to determine the influence of key objectives on Japan???s approach, and in particular those objectives that restrained involvement. The thesis finds that a clear hierarchy existed in the influence of the various objectives on Japan???s approach with changes in their influence explaining the evolution of Japan???s commitment. The desire to strengthen the alliance, weakening domestic political constraints, and disregard of China???s opposition provide the key explanations. These findings not only point towards the respective strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches employed to explain Japanese security policy, but they also suggest the value of greater attention to the state???s ability to overcome domestic constraints in determining policy in order to fully understand the broader transformation of Japanese security policy.

This thesis examines the problems posed by Japan???s recent macroeconomic experience for conventional monetary policy theory and practice. Japan???s experience with deflation and the zero lower bound for nominal official interest rates is placed in the context of neo-Wicksellian and monetarist interpretations of the monetary policy transmission mechanism. The neo-Wicksellian approach to the zero bound problem is shown to suffer significant limitations in view of Japan???s experience, while a monetarist interpretation of the transmission mechanism is shown to be more robust. The thesis considers the role of the official interest rate and the money base in vector autoregression models of the Japanese economy, finding that the economy became less amenable to effective stabilisation by monetary policy from the early 1990s onwards. A new approach to estimating a neo-Wicksellian monetary policy rule for the Bank of Japan is proposed and the robustness of the parameters of this rule determined. The thesis motivates a role for the money base in the determination of real output and inflation. A policy rule in the growth rate of the nominal money base is estimated and the stability of its parameters with respect to a hypothesised structural break and changes in the governorship of the Bank of Japan is considered. Aggregate demand and supply specifications for the Japanese economy are estimated that show a distinct role for the money base that is independent of the official interest rate. These specifications are extended to develop a model of the Japanese economy. The model is distinctive in incorporating both neo-Wicksellian and monetarist views of the monetary policy transmission mechanism. The macroeconomic stabilisation properties of various interest rate and money base growth rules are compared in the context of the model, using stochastic simulation methods. In particular, a policy rule in the growth rate of the nominal money base with the nominal official interest rate set to zero is simulated and shown to have macroeconomic stabilisation properties that compare favourably to conventional interest rate rules. The thesis concludes that the neglect of money in contemporary monetary policy theory and practice is mistaken in view of Japan???s recent macroeconomic experience.

This thesis examines the development of the international marriage business in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s, and the experiences of female participants from China, South Korea, and the Philippines who married through this system and currently live in Japan. The study treats these women as active female migrants and contributes to a gendered understanding of the process of contemporary migration. The thesis argues for an acknowledgement of the way in which the international marriage business served the purposes of marriage and migration for women in male dominant and economically stratified societies in Asia, without downplaying the fact that the same system and its ideology oppresses women. The study argues that, for these women, participation in international marriage by introduction was about marriage and migration. Analysis of the intricate sites of marriage and migration was thus critical to understanding their experiences. The thesis also argues for recognition of the diverse and complex experiences of the women participants. Part I of this study investigates the macro-economic, social and political factors that influenced development of the international marriage business in Japan. It analyses representations of international introduction marriage and its female participants, and maps the ways in which patriarchal gender ideology in the international marriage business system intersects with global capitalism, and other hegemonic power relations operating in contemporary Japan. Part II examines the marriage and migration experiences of 45 women. The section identifies conflicts faced by the women and examines processes of negotiation inside and outside the family domain. It investigates the extent of the women's agency in their decision to many and live in a foreign country, covering interconnected arenas of marriage, family, paid work, involvement in women's groups and questions of legal citizenship. The women's narratives demonstrate the importance of articulating a structurally embedded analysis with active female agency in the study of international marriage migration.

This thesis analyses the Takarazuka Revue, an all-female musical theatre company, seeking to investigate its relation to broader issues of gender in contemporary Japan. Takarazuka has simultaneously reinforced and challenged the gender norms of Japanese society for the past ninety years, and indeed provides insights into the construction of those very norms. Takarazuka takes images of masculinity and femininity from mainstream society, the media, arts and popular culture, in both Japan and other countries, and reconstructs them according to its own distinct notions of how gender should be portrayed, both on and off its stage, not only by its performers, but also by fans and creative staff. Unlike in other single-sex theatrical genres featuring cross-dressing, such as Kabuki, gender is the essential focus of every performance in Takarazuka. Takarazuka’s practices show that gender is not inherent, but must be learned through observation, imitation and direct instruction, and that various versions of male gender can be assumed for specific purposes, even temporarily, by biological females (and vice versa). Takarazuka’s relationship with gender extends well beyond the stage itself; and one of the ways in which this thesis goes beyond other studies is its focus on the whole life-course of Takarazuka performers, including their girlhood and post-retirement years. The relationship with gender issues encompasses fans as well. The popularity of Takarazuka’s male-role players (otokoyaku), in particular, indicates that the manipulation of gender within a theatrical context has great appeal for audiences. However, many Takarazuka fans, especially female fans of the otokoyaku, evidently not only passively consume the artistry of gender impersonation on its stage, but also actively contribute to its production by communicating their expectations about gender performance to the actors and the Takarazuka administration, and by encouraging each performer to sustain her stage gender off-stage when she appears in public, at least to a certain extent. The emotional investment of fans in supporting Takarazuka is often intense and long-lasting, and their attraction to Takarazuka clearly is not necessarily based solely upon sexuality, as other studies have proposed, but involves broader issues of gender. The influence of Takarazuka derives not only from its performances, but also from many other aspects of its organisation and gender-linked practices. Takarazuka’s existence and details about its members and various unique practices are widely publicised by the media. Its influence upon the social construction of gender in Japan extends beyond the confines of its theatres, its versions of gender roles affecting the lives of many in the general populace apart from those directly involved in performing in, creating or supporting its productions.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Melbourne, 1956.