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Popular Democracy inJapan: How Gender andCommunity are ChangingModern Electoral PoliticsS. HobbisPublished online: 10 Jun 2013.

To cite this article: S. Hobbis (2013) Popular Democracy in Japan: How Gender andCommunity are Changing Modern Electoral Politics, Asian Affairs, 44:2, 349-351,DOI: 10.1080/03068374.2013.795681

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03068374.2013.795681

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Cultural and religious clashes and mutual suspicion between the Uighurs and

Han Chinese are a constant theme of this book. Holdstock discovers it

amongst his Uighur friends and colleagues, who apparently use every opportu-

nity to confide their bitterness and hatred of the Han. On other occasions their

scornful or contemptuous attitudes are expressed in jokes and even in their

assertion of their own cultural heritage. Han Chinese expressed similar senti-

ments about Uighurs, which Holdstock often discovered in their classroom con-

versations and written work.

On the other hand, Holdstock shows from the outset that the grievances of the

Uighurs are based on real or perceived discrimination and suppression by the

Han Chinese authorities and military. When he returns to Xinjiang in 2010, he

goes specifically to unravel the reports of armed conflict between Han and

Uighur mobs. In the high street in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, when fierce sol-

diers shout and display their strength with rifles and body armour, he recalls the

violent crushing of mass Uighur protests in this city the year before, in July 2009.

The official interpretation of this event, as with other similar incidents, was that

the trouble was caused by separatists, instigated from abroad. They agitate for

this region, known by Uighur nationalists as Eastern Turkestan, to gain indepen-

dence from Chinese rule, which they regard as ‘occupation’ of their land, the

homeland of the Uighur people. Indeed, the World Uighur Congress has

called for the independence of Xinjiang for the Uighurs for many years.

Islamic fundamentalists are also now seen as fomenting trouble and discord

in this sensitive region bordering Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

The picturesque descriptions of colourful village life in this remote, wild terrain

in his account are clouded by the underlying political, religious and ethnic ten-

sions which Holdstock encounters at first hand.

MICHAEL SHERINGHAM # 2013

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03068374.2013.795679

Sherry L. Martin. Popular Democracy in Japan: How Gender and Commu-nity are Changing Modern Electoral Politics. Cornell University Press, Ithaca,

NY, 2011. pp. 191. Tables. Figs. Notes. Refs. Index. Hb. £26.50/ $39.95. ISBN

9 7808 0144 9178

Usually researchers on Japan’s political landscape and its civic traditions agree:

Japan’s democracy is skewed, the electorate’s interest low, the bureaucracy

more powerful than elected officials, and pork-barrel politics are the rule despite,

BOOK REVIEWS: EAST ASIA 349

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and even after, the 1990s political-administrative reforms. Sherry L. Martin,

however, provides an opposing vision, at least insofar as she argues that popular

democracy is on the rise, and that this rise is spearheaded by Japan’s women.

According to Martin, increased levels of income and education as well as demo-

graphic changes and institutional reform have facilitated major shifts in party

support, and, in turn, they have provided nonpartisan voters with a strengthened

voice. National political elites are said to be increasingly dependent on, and respon-

sive to, this voice, as evident, for example, in the passing of the national Infor-

mation Disclosure Act in 1999 after over 20 years of pressure from citizens and

local representatives (pp. 96–99). More broadly, Martin therefore suggests that

“over time, popular democracy can be mobilized from the ground up” (p. 173),

and that we are witnessing this very process in contemporary Japan.

One cannot but wish for this proposition to be true. Unfortunately, Martin’s

argument seems to be largely carried by the enthusiasm that swept through

Japan during the 2009 general elections and shortly after the victory of the

Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). She bases her argument on an analysis of

open-ended responses to the Japanese Election and Democratic Survey

(JEDS) and focus group discussions with two independent women’s groups,

Women Now and Neighbourhood Friends. The data derived from these

sources provides ample evidence for an increased local political engagement,

in particular among women, but it does not suffice to support any generaliz-

ations regarding the effect of localized democratic practice on national politics.

At least, her data does not support the notion of a democratic process that indi-

cates a shift towards the very policies favoured by the respondents of the JEDS

and her focus group participants.

For instance, in her discussion of recent (positive) developments in national

politics, Martin identifies the premierships of Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda

as clearly divergent from popular democratic sentiments and voters’ concerns.

Both challenged reform agendas and both favoured a return to nationalistic,

elite politics (pp. 68–69). According to Martin, this behaviour weakened

their positions, resulted in the brevity of their rules, and contributed to sub-

sequent efforts to establish stronger relations with voters who “through evolving

grassroots citizenship practices” have become increasingly “important to politi-

cal elites” (p. 72). However, in December 2012, Shinzo Abe returned to power,

the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won a sweeping majority in the House of

Representatives, voter turnout rates were, at 59.3 per cent, the lowest in post-

1945 Japan, and the number of female representatives fell to a shocking 7.9

per cent. After the 2012 elections, little hope seems left for Martin’s enthusiasm.

350 BOOK REVIEWS

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On the other hand, she convincingly identifies localized democratic practices

that are not only alive but flourishing, and that demand closer attention from

scholarship which is concerned with developing a better understanding of the

particularities of Japan’s politics and citizenry. Martin’s focus group analysis

clearly shows that Japan’s women are, despite their marginality, politically

active. They have found ways to overcome at least some of the barriers

created by male-centric and elitist political traditions. For example, Women

Now’s website does not only bring together women with similar interests and

experiences but it also provides a platform to fill in knowledge gaps and encou-

rage informed political action. Hence, Martin’s account should remind any of its

readers of two important issues: firstly, “‘communities of practice’ outside of

institutions of formal education enrich a dense and vibrant civil society”

(p. 133), and they constitute themselves an important component of a function-

ing democracy; secondly, the role of Japan’s women in (local) politics deserves

closer attention, in particular in view of broader economic, demographic and

social changes.

In summary, what can be learnt from Martin’s account is that Japan’s public,

and its women, are not politically “apathetic” (p. 100), at least not in a local

context. What has to be viewed with caution, however, is the extent to which

this lack of local apathy will and can impact on national politics.

S. HOBBIS # 2013

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03068374.2013.795681

John Rennie Short. Korea: A Cartographic History. University of Chicago

Press, Chicago, IL, 2012. pp. xii + 160. Maps. Bibliog. Refs. Hb. £29/ $45.

ISBN 9 7802 2675 3645

Valerie Gelezeau. Atlas Seoul. Editions Autrement, Paris, 2011 (Atlas Mega-

poles). pp. 88. Maps. Illust. Bibliog. Index. Charts. Pb. Euro 20. ISBN 9 7827

4671 5387

Anybody following the news will know that maps are highly important in Asia

today. In disputes such as that between China and Japan over the Daiyutai/Senkaku islands, or between Japan and the two Koreas over Dokdo/Takeshima,

maps form an important, if often inconclusive, part of each party’s case. Gov-

ernments scour libraries and archives for fresh cartographic evidence, which is

triumphantly paraded in the cause. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that these

two works are supported by the Korea Foundation, the Republic of Korea’s

BOOK REVIEWS: EAST ASIA 351

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