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This article explores both the character and the implications behind Japan nationalizing its railway system, beginning in 1906. The author shows how early 20th century government leaders, in order to achieve both political and managerial ends, caused a de facto merger between various publicly and privately owned railway properties to effectively create a national railway system. The author further examines the development of railroad policies and programs designed to coordinate the growth of the national system, especially as it relates to restructuring the organization to create a new corporate culture. The result of these efforts formed Japan's national infrastructure, which evolved into the national market system and large-scale industrial development that continues today.

(1999). Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 85-85.

This volume of proceedings from the Conference on Meiji Studies presents a rare multinational interchange among professors, researchers, and graduate students investigating Japan. The essays reflect both an appreciation of past scholarship and a determination to destabilize existing paradigms about Meiji Japan in favor of a multiplicity of perspectives that privilege subjectivity and non-elite groups. Attention to relations of power challenges the notions of modernization as the master narrative in Japan's recent history and of consensus as the primary characteristic of social interaction in Japan. The authors present an array of intellectual perspective on topics in the social sciences, humanities, and arts, employing a variety of theories and methodologies. The book will be welcomed by readers interested in the Meiji era, contemporary Japan, and postmodern theories of power.

This volume traces the manner in which, through perceptions of and interaction with both China and the states of the West, Japan's self-perception as an Asian nation, as a member of the international community, and as a product of its own history and current situation and goals, evolved during the period between mid-19th century and the end of World War II. Contents: Rival States on a Loose ReinoThe Neglected Tradition of Appeasement in Late Tokugawa Japan, Building the National Communications SystemoAdopting and Adapting Western Organizational Models in Meji Japan, Meji Japan and the Educational and Language Reforms in Late Ch'ing China, Shimazaki Toson's Before the DawnoHistorical Fiction as History and as Literature, Forecasting a Pacific War, 1912-1933oThe Idea of Conditional Japanese Victory, Japanese Policies and Concepts for a Regional Order in Asia, 1938-1940, Prophet Without HonoroKiyosawa Kiyoshi's View of Japanese-American Relations, Friend or FoeoThe Ambivalent Images of the U.S. and China in Wartime Japan, A Matter of TranscendenceoWar Experiences and the Transformation of Japanese and American Fighter Pilots, EpilogueoNational Identity, National Past, National Isms.