Deck 16: Global Power in a Polarized World: Japan in the 1980s

Question 1

In which area did Japanese relations with the US become more strained in the 1970s and 1980?

A) US-Japan military relations
B) US-Japan trade
C) Differences over policy toward the Soviet Union
D) Japanese resistance to American cultural products, and vice-versa

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What was export 'dumping'?

A) Exporting products at low cost to undermine foreign competitors in their home markets
B) Exporting lower-quality products that did not sell well in domestic markets
C) Importing raw materials and exporting low-quality finished goods
D) Exporting raw materials.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What did the 'Super 301' clause allow the US congress to do?

A) To demand that a country limit its exports to the US
B) To subsidize American steel, color TV, and automobile manufacture
C) To withdraw US troops from Japan if necessary
D) To deem particular foreign markets unfairly closed to imports

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Why did The New York Times Magazine juxtapose images of a new Japanese plant with a rusting American one?

A) To criticize American business strategy
B) To emphasise the beauty of Japanese design
C) To highlight the economic threat posed by Japan's success
D) To compare the quality of Japanese industrial jobs with American industrial jobs

Question 5

What happened after the 1985 Plaza Accords that contributed to the 'bubble economy'?

A) Aggressive bank loans and government subsidies enabled costly infrastructure projects and resort construction
B) The Japanese and foreign governments worked together to strengthen the yen, to enable imports and discourage exports
C) Japanese companies invested aggressively in new technologies to become more productive
D) All of the above

Question 6

Which of the following was NOT a reason for strained Japanese relations with its neighbour in Asia?

A) Territorial disputes
B) Allegedly predatory actions by Japanese companies in Southeast Asia
C) Tensions over the teaching of modern history of Japan-Asia relations
D) Low levels of Japanese overseas assistance

Question 7

With which countries did Japan have the most difficult relations in the 1970s and 1980s?

A) Indonesia and Taiwan
B) Thailand and Vietnam
C) China and Korea
D) The US and the USSR

Question 8

What was newly controversial about the Yasukuni shrine in the 1980s?

A) The souls of fourteen convicted war criminals were enshrined their in 1978
B) The emperor began to make regular visits to pray there
C) Prime ministers stopped visiting it, provoking anger among nationalists
D) The shrine's new museum exhibit accused the United States of war crimes for dropping the atomic bomb

Question 9

Which of the following was a factor behind a rise of revisionist attitudes towards World War II in the 1970s and 1980s?

A) The rise of China produced a newly defensive nationalism in Japan
B) Many Japanese felt ongoing criticism of their country was unfair and rooted in economic jealousy
C) The film version of Hayashi Fusao's In Affirmation of the Great East Asia War achieved unprecedented levels of success and penetration
D) The government censored newspapers and publishers whose produced critical views of Japanese imperialism and wartime policy

Question 10

Which of the following writers did NOT write in the vein of Nihonjinron ?

A) Hajime Karatsu
B) Umehara Takeshi
C) Hayashi Fusao
D) Watsuji Tetsuro

Question 11

The Japanese economy did NOT experience _____ between 1975 and 1985

A) Lower inflation
B) High unemployment
C) Consistent growth
D) Robust exports

Question 12

Which of the following prime ministers did not begin his careers as a bureaucrat?

A) Fukuda Takeo
B) Ohira Masayoshi
C) Ikeda Hayato
D) Nakasone Yasuhiro

Question 13

How did the LDP (barely) manage to remain in power in the 1980s?

A) It drew districts that secured disproportionate representation for its rural supporters
B) It won credit for growing national prosperity
C) It co-opted reforms earlier put forward by the progressive side
D) All of the above

Question 14

Why were both the elections of 1976 and 1983 hailed as a new era of 'parity politics'?

A) Because opposition parties formed governments on both occasions
B) Because the Japan Socialist Party gained huge numbers of seats in parliament
C) Because the LDP failed to secure outright majorities in both elections
D) Because voters began to choose their representatives based on their environmental credentials.

Question 15

Which of the following was NOT a political priority for Nakasone Yasuhiro?

A) Reducing the budget deficit
B) Reducing the power of the bureaucracy
C) Privatizing loss-making state-owned enterprises
D) Breaking the back of trade unions

Question 16

What was so shocking to the older generation about the "aliens" (shinjinrui)?

A) They were seen as lacking the company-centered diligence of the older generation
B) They were seen as being too irreligious
C) They were seen as travelling too much outside Japan
D) They were seen as less educated than previous generations

Question 17

To what sort of work-related tragedy did the term karoshi refer?

A) Death (suicide) brought on by the shame of unemployment
B) Death due to the stress of freelancing
C) Death due to overwork
D) Death due to exposure to toxic chemicals

Question 18

What were the 'micro-masses'?

A) Various subcultures and cultural interest groups that emerged within nominally homogenous Japanese society
B) Specialized media outlets catering to particular cultural groups
C) Apolitical and self-centred youngsters who focused only on the unimportant things in life
D) Innovative miniaturization technology, a forerunner to nanotechnology.

Question 19

What happened to voting rates in Japan in the 1980s?

A) They declined
B) They stayed the same
C) They increased
D) All of the above at one time or another, for there was no consistent trend

Question 20

Which of the following is the best characterization of what happened in Japan in the 1980s?

A) Increasing affluence and decreasing political confrontation
B) Increasing gender equality and increasing birth rates
C) Increasing political conservatism and decreasing tensions with China
D) Decreasing economic tension with the US thanks to an improved trade balance