Deck 17: Japans Lost Decades: 1990s-2000s

Question 1

What was the notable reaction to the Mayor of Nagasaki's opining in 1988 that Emperor Hirohito bore some responsibility for World War 2?

A) Defenders of the monarchy saw no problem with it
B) The news media ignored it
C) It led to an attempt to assassinate the mayor
D) The emperor criticized the mayor for his view.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What was unusual about the marriage of Owada Masako to Crown Prince Naruhito?

A) She was a career diplomat educated in the United States
B) She was a practicing Christian and pacifist
C) She was a second-generation Japanese-American
D) She was an official in the Ministry of Education educated in Japan and Britain

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which major question emerged in the 2000s about imperial succession in Japan?

A) Whether it was permissible for someone with mental health problems to hold the throne
B) Whether it was permissible for the throne to an emperor's nephew or niece, rather than his own child
C) Whether imperial princesses should be educated apart from princes
D) Whether a woman could in some circumstances ascend to the throne.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

From which of the following countries did Japan NOT receive significant numbers of immigrants in the early 2000s?

A) China
B) South Korea
C) The Philippines
D) Brazil

Question 5

Which shocking event was deplored as a sign of social breakdown among Japanese youth in the 1990s?

A) A student murdered and decapitated another student
B) A student stalked and murdered a teacher
C) An entire class ran riot in a school, causing much damage
D) A group of teenagers tortured the principle of their school

Question 6

'Paid dating' referred to the practice of...

A) Immigrant women exchanging sex for money to Japanese men
B) Teenage girls offered sex for money to older men
C) Young men offered sex for money to their classmates
D) Trafficking of rural and foreign women as prostitute in major cities

Question 7

What was notable about the response of the general public to the Kobe earthquake of 1995?

A) Many volunteered their time and energy to helping victims
B) Very few people took an interest in helping with the recovery
C) Large numbers of people donated money to help the city
D) Widespread intense protests against the city's lack of preparation.

Question 8

Which of the following was NOT a term used to describe the perceived increase in social inequality in early 2000s Japan?

A) kakusa shakai (divided society)
B) nyu toraburu (new troubles)
C) nyu pua (new poor)
D) nyu ricchi (new rich)

Question 9

What did Aum Shinrikyō believers do in 1995?

A) Attacked dozens of rush hour commuters with knives on the Tokyo subway
B) Terrify thousands of commuters by releasing tear gas at subway stations around Tokyo
C) Release packets of poisonous gas in a rush hour subway
D) Attack foreigners at locations across Tokyo

Question 10

In the early 2000s, the US did NOT demand that Japan...?

A) Play a more active global military role
B) Open its internal markets
C) Import American semiconductors
D) Pay for America's military actions in Somalia

Question 11

Which of the following periods marked the major recession at the start of the so-called "lost decades"?

A) 1991-1995
B) 1994-97
C) 1997-99
D) 2000-2006

Question 12

What was the purpose of the Financial Revitalization Law?

A) To encourage investment in Japanese industry
B) To attract overseas capital to Japan
C) To repair Japan's ailing banking industry
D) To form the basis of an LDP-DPJ alliance

Question 13

Which of the following industries was at the heart of Japan's 'new economy' of the late 1990s?

A) Aircraft and rocket manufacture
B) Financial services
C) Online retail shopping
D) High-tech hardware manufacturing

Question 14

Which of the following figures was the dominant LDP powerbroker in the early 1990s?

A) Takeshita Noboru
B) Uno Sosuke
C) Doi Takako
D) Kanemaru Shin

Question 15

What was notable about the LDP in the late 1990s?

A) For most of the decade it still managed to hold or share power
B) It briefly joined a coalition with the JSP
C) Its prime ministers served unusually short terms on average
D) All of the above

Question 16

Why did Japanese citizens lose faith in the country's bureaucracy in the late 1990s?

A) A series of scandals came to light revealing bureaucratic chicanery and mismanagement
B) Bureaucrats were perceived as increasingly politicized
C) It came to light that answers for the high-stakes hiring exam had for years been leaked to Tokyo University graduates
D) Bureaucrats were blamed for Japan's poor economic performance

Question 17

Which of the following did NOT occur during the 1996 election?

A) The JSP collapsed into a minor political force
B) The LDP came close to securing a majority
C) The DPJ performed far worse than expected
D) The Japan New Party secured nearly one-third of the seats in the Diet

Question 18

Why did Japanese attitudes toward US bases become more negative in the early 1990s?

A) They were seen as a provocation to the Chinese and North Koreans
B) A rising tide of nationalism rejected the presence of a foreign power in Japan
C) With the end of the Cold War, many saw the bases to be unnecessary
D) The US raised the fee it charged Japan for support of the bases.

Question 19

Which Korean drama became extremely popular in Japan in the early 2000s?

A) Panda Diplomacy
B) Soft Power
C) Mr. Kim's Konbini
D) Winter Sonata

Question 20

What did the Japan Self-Defense Force controversially do in 2003?

A) It bought an aircraft carrier
B) It deployed to Iraq
C) It attacked Taliban camps in Afghanistan
D) It expanded in size by two divisions