In this meticulously researched study, Sheldon Garon examines the evolution of Japan's governmental policies toward labor from the late nineteenth century to the present day, and he substantially revises prevailing views which depict relations between the Japanese state and labor simply in terms of suppression and mutual antagonism.

Sheldon Garon is Associate Professor of History and East Asian Studies at Princeton University.

1988 John K. Fairbank Prize, American Historical Association

1988 John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History, American Historical Association