Theorising economic nationalism*

Abstract. Economic nationalism has been regarded as a set of attitudes rather than a coherent theory. However, by using Durkheim's analytical framework and bringing the concept of the nation into political economy, the author argues that economic nationalism can be provided with a systematic theory. This theory for economic nationalism helps us to grasp the reciprocal relationship between the political and economic power of the nation‐state. Economic modernisation, especially industrialisation, needs the powerful state, and the state derives its power from the nation. Economic development can amplify the social imaginary of the nation by expanding mobilisation and communication. Protectionism, industrial policy and Keynesian policy can strengthen not only the economy but also nationalism. The proposed theory for economic nationalism thus paves the way for understanding the role of nationalism in political economy.     

Strontium isotope evidence of migration and diet in relation to ritual tooth ablation: a case study from the Inariyama Jomon site,Japan

Ritual tooth ablation was extensively practiced among Jomon (Japanese Neolithic) societies in their final phase (ca. 3000-2300 BP). This tradition includes two different tooth ablation patterns, type 4I and type 2C, referring to extraction of the mandibular incisors and canines, respectively. However, the reason for this difference is unclear. Previous carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of human remains from the Inariyama shell mound revealed that type 4I individuals were more dependent on terrestrial resources and type 2C individuals on marine resources. To test this hypothesis, we performed strontium (Sr) isotope (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) analyses on the same skeletal remains and on modern plants around the site. Because Sr isotope ratios of plants differ according to the local geology and seawater has a consistent Sr isotope ratio, the Sr isotope ratios of tooth enamel can reveal both migration and diet. Comparing Sr isotope ratios in plants and seawater with those of tooth enamel, we identified four possible immigrants. Type 4I locals had significantly higher Sr isotope ratios than type 2C locals. The ratios of the type 4I and type 2C locals were close to those of terrestrial plants and seawater, respectively, suggesting that type 4I locals had incorporated much Sr from terrestrial resources and type 2C locals from marine resources. These results support the hypothesis that ritual tooth ablation reflects dietary differences throughout an individual’s life, and they suggest possible occupational differentiation among the Jomon people.     

Single women and housing choices in urban Japan

Japan has experienced a particularly sharp decline in marriage in recent decades and a subsequent increase in ‘never-marrieds’ and single-person households. Social fragmentation has been associated with prolonged economic instability and neoliberalization that has restructured employment, housing and policy contexts. A particular social concern has been the difficulties facing those who do not follow conventional married life-courses. While marriage has been important to progress up a housing ladder and property asset ownership, singledom constrains housing choices and shapes very different life-chances over the life-course. This is especially true for single women who are disadvantaged in both housing and labour markets. This article examines the ongoing restructuring of housing opportunities that are helping reshape gender differences and experiences, as well as the new housing careers being followed by the growing number of urban single women in Japan. Based on interviews with female singles in metropolitan Tokyo, as well as secondary data from national surveys, the article considers how housing opportunities and choices are being renegotiated in regard to changing expectations of marriage, life-courses and home. We also reflect upon relationships between housing choices, social policy, single life-courses and processes of individualization.     

Exports' Contribution to Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence for California,Massachusetts, and Texas,Using Employment Data

The paper shows an interregional trade model from which testable parameter restrictions for economic base theory, shown to be equivalent to the hypotheses of the Granger causality test, are derived. The results of the tests for three states, based on various bifurcation methods, suggest that economic base theory holds strongly for the crudest definition of the base, but not for others. The frequency analysis indicates a likely association between inherent cyclicalities in employment growth data and economic base theory. The regional multipliers and the timing of economic adjustments to exogenous shocks are also discussed.     

Spinal degenerative lesions and spinal ligamentous ossifications in ancient Chinese populations of the Yellow River Civilization

Rheumatological diseases, whether inflammatory or degenerative, are ubiquitous among modern Asian people but very few palaeopathological studies have been performed in Asia on this subject. Since 1996, we have been carrying out a palaeoepidemiological survey of rheumatic diseases in ancient Chinese and Japanese skeletal populations. Findings on the spinal column in ancient Chinese populations (ca. 5000 bc –ad 1644) in Henan Province (centre of the Yellow River Civilization) are reported in this study. The examined number of the people over 20 years old was 365 (185 males, 169 females and 11 unsexed). Of these, 248 were young adults, 98 were middle adults and 19 were old adults. Crude prevalence (number/100) in total population of vertebral osteophytosis/facet osteoarthritis was 17.5/7.7, 17/3.7 and 44.6/21.1 at the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, respectively. That of ossified anterior longitudinal ligament (OALL) or Forestier's disease was around 3 at each of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine. Ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) of the cervical spine was observed in five out of 114 skeletons with cervical spine preserved, while it did not exist in any thoracic and lumbar segment. Ossification of the ligamentum flavum (OLF) was predominantly observed in the thoracic spine, the crude prevalence of which was 36.7. Overall spinal degenerative lesions seemed to have been more prevalent and spinal ligament ossifications less prevalent in ancient Chinese populations than in modern people. None of the inflammatory lesions like rheumatoid spondylitis, as well as seronegative spondyloarthropathies, were detected. This is the first palaeopathological study in which the prevalence of OPLL and OLF, the two clinically important spinal ligamentous ossifications causing myelopathy in modern mankind, was surveyed in ancient skeletons. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Strontium isotope analysis to reveal migration in relation to climate change and ritual tooth ablation of Jomon skeletal remains from western Japan

A gradual population increase accompanying climate cooling has been evinced as having occurred in western Japan during the Middle (ca. 5000–4000 years BP) to Late-Final Jomon period (ca. 4000–2300 years BP). We test the hypothesis that this population change paralleled increasing human migration. We also test the archaeological hypothesis that types of ritual tooth ablation can be used to distinguish between locals and immigrants during the Late-Final Jomon period. We measured strontium isotope ratios in human skeletal remains from the Middle Jomon Ota and the Late-Final Jomon Tsukumo sites located in the Sanyo region of western Japan. Tooth enamel and bone were analyzed, and modern plant samples were collected in the areas surrounding the two sites to make a map of environmental strontium isotope ratios. The biosphere strontium isotope ratios correlated well with the underlying geology, enabling us to put forth a hypothesis of immigrants’ origins. There were no migration pattern differences between the Middle and Late-Final Jomon groups, indicating that the gradual population increase was caused by an increase in the indigenous population. All the Tsukumo individuals are locals, and this finding indicates that types of tooth ablation did not distinguish between locals and immigrants. Alternative hypotheses for the presence of different tooth ablation types in the Jomon society should be explored.     

Luminescence dating of volcanogenic outburst flood sediments from Aso volcano and tephric loess deposits, southwest Japan

Luminescence dating has been applied to volcanogenic outburst flood sediments (Takuma gravel bed) from Aso volcano, Japan, and tephric loess deposits overlying the gravel bed. The poly-mineral fine grains (4–11 μm) from loess deposits were measured with pulsed optically stimulated luminescence (pulsed OSL) and post-IR infrared stimulated luminescence (pIRIR) methods, whereas the Takuma gravel bed containing no quartz, was measured with IRSL and pIRIR methods using sand sized (150–200 μm) plagioclase. The loess deposits date back at least to ～50 ka by consistent IRSL, pIRIR and pulsed OSL ages from the lowermost part of the loess deposits from one section. The ages obtained from the bottom part of the other loess section are not consistent each other. However, we consider that the pIRIR age (72±6 ka) which showed negligible anomalous fading is most reliable, and regard as a preliminary minimum age of the Takuma gravel bed. The equivalent doses (D_e) for the plagioclase from the Takuma gravel bed have a narrow distribution and the weighted mean of the three samples yield an age of 89±3 ka. This age is in agreement with the last caldera-forming eruption of Aso volcano (～87 ka) and it is likely that the pIRIR signal has not been bleached before the deposition. IRSL dating without applying pIRIR using small aliquots was also conducted, however, the IRSL signal shows no clear evidence of an additional bleaching during the event of outburst flood from the caldera lake.     

A strontium isotope analysis on the relationship between ritual tooth ablation and migration among the Jomon people in Japan

Distinct patterns can be discerned in the extensive ritual tooth ablation found among the human skeletal remains of the Late–Final Jomon period (ca. 3200–2800 cal BP) in Japan. Based on comparative observations of sex and grave patterns in the skeletal remains, two major patterns in ritual tooth ablation, termed type 4I and type 2C, have been assigned to locals and immigrants, respectively. In order to test this hypothesis, strontium (Sr) isotope (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) analyses were performed on human skeletal remains from the Yoshigo shell mound in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan. Plants in the surrounding area were also examined to illustrate the geographic ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr distribution. The Sr isotopic variation in human tooth enamel (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr = 0.70868–0.71028) was greater than that in human bones (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr = 0.70871–0.70943). Individuals with higher Sr isotope ratios in their tooth enamel than seawater Sr values of 0.7092 can be identified as immigrants (36% of population). The presence of these isotopically identified immigrants between both type 2C and type 4I individuals does not support the previous hypothesis. The intra-population ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr distribution of tooth enamel of type 2C individuals showed a significantly higher mean ratio than that of type 4I individuals, suggesting a higher proportion of immigrants among the former.     

History,distance and text: narratives of the 1853–1854 Perry expedition to Japan

In both the US and Japan, popular narratives recounting the story of Commodore Perry's 1853–1854 US naval expedition to Japan have played a key role in the textual negotiation of commonsense understandings of space, place, history, and geopolitics. We use the textual analysis of a range of US and Japanese popular narratives of Perry/‘black ships’ stories to read this negotiation in terms of concepts of proximity and distance. Discussing different ways in which the vastness of the Pacific Ocean has been dealt with textually, we comment on the ways in which narrative histories of these events relate to differing understandings of national identity and US–Japan relations. We argue that the history of US popular narratives displays a steady reduction of transpacific distance, with the story's focus shifting away from details of the ocean voyage and towards the creation of a metaphorical setting for US–Japan relations, a setting identified with a Japanese location but framed within a US point of view. Japanese narratives, meanwhile, have displayed two contrasting trends, both of which could be read as forms of resistance to US rhetorical appropriations of Japanese national space and history. On the one hand, narratives dealing with Japanese history in the context of a US–Japan rivalry have tended to remove the ocean and shorten transpacific distance, thereby reducing the significance of the Perry initiative; on the other hand, narratives setting Japanese history on the broader global stage have tended to highlight the ocean as a vast space of distances and opportunities.