This volume covers the history of Japan from the mid-19th century up to the present day. It charts the spectacular rise of Japan - a society which leapt in little more than a generation from late feudal to early industrial forms of organization - a disturbing experience for the Japanese as they left behind the traditional and Asian and moved toward the modern and Western. For the new edition a chapter has been added which covers the period from 1989 to the end of 1994, a turbulent period in Japanese politics - at one point there was an eight-party coalition - provoked by bribery allegations and attempts at constitutional change.