I had three main academic aims in visiting Japan. The first was to explore the nature of Japan's welfare regime, to compare its broad features, its crisis-tendencies, and its restructuring processes with the postwar welfare regimes with which I am familiar in Europe. This was important for my current funded research on welfare state restructuring in Britain, Germany, and Scandinavia. The second main aim was to meet Japanese scholars in the areas where I have worked in the past -- especially the regulation approach in radical political economy, Neo-Marxist approaches to state theory, and the political economy of postwar Britain and Europe. I had heard about the work of Japanese social scientists on regulation but, with two exceptions, had met none of the scholars involved; and, although my three books on state theory have been translated into Japanese, I knew little about Japanese work on the state. The opportunity that a two-month visit gave to exchange ideas with faculty and graduate students from various universities was most valuable in refining my understanding of several issues in these areas. A third and more general aim was to find out more about the Japanese university system and the organization of academic research and to explore possibilities for academic exchange with my own institution in Great Britain as well as future research cooperation. Finally, during the preparation of visit, it was suggested by colleagues from Ritsumeikan University that I undertake some factory visits to see at first hand the Japanese labour process in manufacturing. Two such visits were an additional bonus during my stay.
My earlier contacts both in England and Japan with Japanese scholars, especially from Ritsumeikan, Hitotsubashi, and Oita Universities, had already given me a strong interest in the specificity of the economy and the Japanese welfare regime. The distinctive role of the Japanese company has often been highlighted as a key feature in the mode of regulation of the Japanese economy; and I also wanted to undertake some reading about the discourse of aging population and its impact on welfare state restructuring. Discussion, personal observation, and my own reading in Japan confirms the importance of the company form and the distinctiveness of 'company society' as the form of organization of civil society. But it was also clear that the company form varies and that it is subject to various crisis-tendencies -- crisis-tendencies which are also related to certain problems facing the Japanese welfare regime. I gained the impression that the 'aging society' discourse has two main functions in Japan: on the one hand, it is clearly related to the reorganization of medical and social facilities for the elderly; and, on the other hand, the emphasis on the costs of an ageing population appears to function in the same way as the discourse of 'globalization' in Europe, i.e., as a legitimate justification for fisco-financial restraint in the public sector.
I was very satisfied with the wide-ranging and very varied programme of academic conferences, seminars, and lectures which was arranged through my sponsor, Professor Kato. These activities included:
a) a two-day Italian-Japanese conference on the work of Gramsci, where I delivered a paper on Gramsci and economic theory, met many of the leading Japanese scholars of Gramsci as well as Professor Vacca from the Gramsci Institute in Italy and Professor Buttigieg from the United States. I was able to continue important discussions on the relevance of Gramsci's work to Japan with Prof Matsuda and Mr Sameshima when I visited Ritsumeikan University.
b) a two-day conference of the Society for Economic Research, where I attended a session on the Communist Manifesto, took the opportunity to meet economists from the three main Marxist theoretical currents in Japan, and particularly enjoyed a long discussion with Prof Sekine from the Uno School. The conference also led to an invitation to Kansai University (see below).
c) a special conference on the Regulation Approach organized by Professors Kato and Tsuru of Hitotsubashi University. Professor Robert Boyer, the most important contemporary regulation theorist (visiting from Paris), and myself gave complementary papers on the regulation school. There was an interesting and lively discussion of the relevance of the approach to contemporary capitalism and its crisis in general and to Japan in particular. Following the discussions at this conference, and my later discussions with Boyer at Hitotsubashi, where he was also a visitor, I have been writing a new paper on crisis theory and capitalism.
d) a special conference, held at Ritsumeikan University but with participants from the wider Kyoto area, on the future of the nation-state and civil society, with three paper-givers: myself and two colleagues from Ritsumeikan. The organizers were Professors MATSUBA Masafumi and SHINODA Takeshi.
Other activities where I was the principal speaker were:
a) An undergraduate lecture on the 'ABC of globalization' and a staff seminar on my recent theoretical work on regulation and the state, at Oita University, organized by Professor MIYAMACHI Yoshihiro.
b) A staff seminar on "The 'New Labour' government" in the Economics Department at Kansai University, organized by Professor MORIOKA Koji.
c) A seminar for staff and graduate students at Nagoya University on the theme of 'Narrating The Future of the Nation-State'; this was preceded by two informal sessions with senior staff in economics, law, and political science. This was organized by Professor SHINDO -- who will be visiting me at my own university in 1999. It was also an opportunity to meet the translator of one of my books, Dr ONO Koji.
d) A joint seminar with my wife, Dr SUM Ngai-Ling, at Daito-Bunka University, Tokyo, on 'Narrating the Future of the Nation-State' and 'Narrating East Asian Capitalism'. This was organized by Professor YASU Seishu.
e) A similar joint seminar at Hitotsubashi University.
There were also significant informal opportunities with Prof KIMOTO Kimiko, HitotsubashiUniversity, on welfare state restructuring, the family form, and feminism in Japan; with Prof SEKINE Thomas T., on the Uno School; with Prof SHIRATORI Rei and younger colleagues on the Japanese political system; with Prof OKISHIO and Prof Terrell Carver (visiting from Bristol University, United Kingdom), on the young Marx and Marxist political theory; and with many research students and undergraduates at Hitotsubashi University
It is also worth recording that my wife, Dr SUM Ngai-Ling, also gave four lectures during our visit: the first was at the Institute of Developing Economies, Tokyo, on exportism in newly industrialized East Asian economies; the second was on accumulation regimes and the labour process in East Asia, delivered during our visit to Ritsumeikan University; the third lecture was at Hitotsubashi University on 'narrating East Asian governance'; and the last was on the same topic at Daito-Bunka University.
Regarding the Japanese academy: I was impressed with the knowledge of many Japanese scholars about contemporary theoretical and empirical work being undertaken in Europe and North America -- especially among younger scholars who have either studied abroad or had good contacts with these regions. Most of the conferences and seminars that I attended generated good questions and some lively discussion. Nonetheless I was surprised by the extent to which discussion in the Japanese academy was constrained by commitment to specific schools of thought -- something which is less noticeable in Britain than Japan. I was even more surprised by the relative absence of women in leading positions in the Japanese social science community. Several younger scholars asked me about the opportunities to study abroad but expressed worries that this might subsequently disadvantage their academic careers in the Japanese academic system. Whether this was a genuine fear or not, it is impossible for me to say. But it is worrying that this was a common view. For Japan has long had a reputation for its interest in developments elsewhere, the academy more generally is becoming increasingly international in nature, and study abroad is an important part of the internationalization of learning and scholarship.
Regarding factory visits in the Kyoto region: I visited a factory of the Tsurumi company (Tsurumi is a leading submersible pump manufacturer) and Omron (well-known in Japan for its involvement in offering training and employment for the disabled in sheltered workshops). The Tsurumi factory was interesting for its combination of mass production and flexible specialization in different departments, the small number of workers relative to the size of the factory and its storage space; and its capacities for customization. The sheltered workshop was even more interesting because of its relevance to my current research in Denmark -- which is currently attempting to introduce the same sort of economic and social policy. I also learnt much from a special video show (in Tokyo) on gender differences in homes for those suffering from senile dementia.
I wrote one paper specifically in preparation for my visit to Japan. This was for translation into Japanese in the coming issue of journal "Enonomy and Society" and concerned the Communist Manifesto after 150 years. I also wrote two other papers during my stay in Japan, also to appear in Japanese: one concerned the work of Gramsci and integral economics; and the other was based on my lectures at Kansai and Ritsumeikan universities and concerns the nature of the new Labour government in Britain. A fourth paper, written for other purposes, has also been translated and will shortly appear in the Ritsumeikan Journal of Social Science.
I also gathered a substantial amount of material on the Japanese welfare regime which I am now working on during my sabbatical in Denmark. This will prove very useful in my current comparative research project on welfare restructuring. My reading and discussions also enabled me to refine my ideas in political economy -- especially regarding key contradictions and dilemmas in the capital relation that are sources of instability in any social mode of regulation. This has enabled me in turn to establish more fully than before what were the material bases of the Fordist golden age and what factors prevent a quick consolidation of a post-Fordist accumulation regime. Other reading and discussions enabled me to develop a self-criticism of my own past work on the Schumpeterian workfare state. This is now being refined in my current research on welfare state reform in Britain, Denmark, and Germany.
I hope to return to Japan in November 1998 in connection with a joint seminar organized by the European Consortium for Political Research and the Japan Political Science Association. This will be part of a three-year study group on civil society as a concept and in reality. I got involved in this project during my stay in Japan and it connects closely to my collaboration with various colleagues at Ritsumeikan University.
In short, I have learnt much from my visit, it has had a positive impact on my own current and future research, and it enabled me to talk directly with many colleagues in Japan. I am grateful to Professor Kato and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for the opportunity to visit Japan for an extended period.