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This study examines post-war social change in a Japanese farming community. Social change is defined as changes in the three sets of rules for social behaviour in a social system. Three sets of factors affected social change in rural Japan: (1) changes in the policies and programmes of the central government, (2) changes in the national economy, and (3) the adoption by farmers of new farm techniques. The central government has aimed at the industrialization of Japanese agriculture. Through its policies and programmes the government removed or modified obstacles to economic growth and provided conditions favourable to the growth of the farm economy. The Japanese economy has grown at a rapid rate. National economic growth together with governmental policies and the farmers' incentive to increase farm output has resulted in significant changes in rural Japan. For example, these factors have increased farmers' access to economic resources, absorbed rural young people into industrial centres, motivated farmers to mechanize farm practices thereby raising production costs, and made necessary an increase in household income. Farmers have adopted new farm techniques. Despite the exodus of youth from the rural areas, as farmers mechanize their practices they developed a surplus of labour. Farmers have diversified production activities by investing the surplus labour into non-farm operations, or into farm operations when competent change-agents existed. Their adoption of new farm techniques modified the old sets of rules for social behaviour, and social change took place in rural Japan. If the present trends continue, Japanese farming communities will look very different in the future. First, present suburban communities will disappear as "farming" communities. Second, the majority of present farming households will leave farming, and only a small number of larger farmers will remain in those communities in which the residents make no deliberate efforts to differentiate their farm operations. Third, a large number of farming households will remain farming in those communities in which the residents will differentiate farm operations; these communities will be small in number, but the community I studied will be one of them. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

This research presents an in depth discussion and analysis on U.S. Japanese foreign trade. It is divided into two parts. The first hypothesis states that the appreciation of the dollar in the early eighties is positively correlated with the U.S. trade deficit, especially with Japan. The second hypothesis states that Friedrich Von Hayek's Theory of Social Order applies to the development of capitalism in that country. This can also be divided into two parts, a) this generation of Japanese consumes, saves, and invests differently than previous generations, and b) Japanese consumption and investment patterns follow U.S. consumption and investment patterns with a lag.

The postwar transformation of the international environment has caused economic issues to become a main source of contention among industrial states. The trade imbalance between Japan and its trading partners became a major source of conflict. Reciprocity of access and opening the market of Japan became the main point of debate and the major issue affecting relations between Japan and the United States. While the distinction between the domain of domestic and international politics increasingly is blurred, different domestic political economies create bilateral political and economic conflict. The structure and politics of intercorporate groups or vertical keiretsu are a major feature of Japan's industrial structure and political economy. This case study examines how vertical keiretsu in the automobile and home electric appliance industries affect the Japanese political economy and international trade. A political economy approach focuses on the political context of economic phenomena by analyzing both political and economic variables. Case studies of keiretsu were used in order to gain an understanding of Japan's political economy. A number of propositions or assumptions about the political economy and the dynamics of keiretsu were examined in these studies. It was found that vertical keiretsu influences the industrial sector, trade, and foreign policies in Japan. Japan's industrial policies cannot fully be understood without taking keiretsu into consideration. Scholars have not yet fully considered vertical keiretsu as major actors in the Japanese political process. Their political influence on industrial policies has largely been overlooked. Vertical keiretsu in the automobile and home electric appliance industries were found in the case studies to have been shaping industrial policies since the early post war years. Findings about the nature of Japan's political economy help to explain the conflictive bilateral relationships between Japan and the United States. The findings also show that understanding political economies of nations is increasingly important as the world economy grows and greater trade interaction is imminent.