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.

"Essential reading for all who are interested in modern Japan and how it developed. . . . In this book, Sheldon Garon studies the Japanese state's response to the rise of industrial labor. . . . It is a careful, nuanced examination of the long debate over the place of labor in modern society and the changing contours of labor policy. . . . The State and Labor in Modern Japan is an important and challenging book. It raises our level of understanding of modern Japanese society and politics."—W. Dean Kinzley, Journal of Asian Studies

"This book is recommendable not only to students of Japanese political or labour history, but also to those interested in studying comparative industrial relations. It is an excellent example of how a historical account sheds much light on what might easily be swept aside under the umbrella of culture to explain a nation's industrial relations system."—Mari Sako, Work, Employment & Society

"An extensively researched, clearly conceptualized and well-written book. It challenges many existing assumptions, and will remain a seminal text on bureaucratic and labour history for the foreseeable future."—Janet Hunter, Japan Forum

"A fine book. It offers a remarkable historical interpretation of many unsettled questions on state-society relationships. It amply demonstrates a historian's craft that excels in the organization of specifics to suggest or derive general trends with important implications for the present and future. It also sets a new standard of thoroughness and sophistication for the use of original Japanese sources. . . . Should be required reading for specialists and general readers alike in the interest of proper understanding of Japan."—Koji Taira, Monumenta Nipponica

Winner of the John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History, The American Historical Association