Ruffians, Yakuza, Nationalists: The Violent Politics of Modern Japan, 1860–1960

Violence has been an enduring force in the history of modern Japanese politics. The very birth of the modern Japanese state was violent. By placing violence at the center of a story about Japanese political history, this book attempts to demonstrate that politics was often dangerous and far more violent than has been previously understood. The general subject of political violence in Japan was understudied for many years; when it was dealt with, violence was mainly considered in the context of social or political movements and treated only as evidence of other political phenomena, be it the emergence of a democratic consciousness or right-wing extremism. Violence was rarely examined as a phenomenon in and of itself.