This survey about associational life and the public sphere brings the study of civil society in Japan into the mainstream of the Western literature on the subject. Its importance thus lies not only in deepening our understanding of Japan, but of civil society generally.

Introduction; Part I. Context: 1. What is civil society? Frank Schwartz; 2. From Meiji to Heisei: the state and civil society in Japan Sheldon Garon; 3. Capitalism and civil society in postwar Japan: perspectives from intellectual history Andrew Barshay; Part II. The Associational Sphere: 4. Japan's civil society organizations in comparative perspective Tsujinaka Yutaka; 5. Molding Japanese civil society: state structured incentives and the patterning of civil society Robert Pekkanen; 6. After Aum: religion and civil society in Japan Helen Hardacre; 7. State-society partnerships in the Japanese welfare state Margarita Estevez-Abe; Part III. The Nonmarket Activities of Economic Actors: 8. Redefining the conservative coalition: agriculture and small business in Japan Robert Bullock; 9. The death of unions' associational life? Political and cultural aspects of enterprise unions Suzuki Akira; 10. The struggle for an independent consumer society: consumer activism and the state's response in postwar Japan Patricia Maclachlan; Part IV. State-Civil Society Linkages: 11. Media and the Internet in the development of civil society in Japan Laurie Freeman; 12. A tale of two legal systems: prosecuting corruption in Japan and Italy David Johnson; Part V. Globalization and Value Change: 13. Trust and social intelligence in Japan Yamagishi Toshio; 14. Building global civil society from the outside in? Japan's development NGOs, the state, and international norms Kim Reimann; Conclusion: targeting by an activist state: Japan as a civil society model Susan Pharr.