Integrating political events with cultural, economic, and intellectual movements, Modern Japan provides a balanced and authoritative survey of modern Japanese history. A summary of Japan’s early history, emphasizing institutions and systems that influenced Japanese society, provides a well-rounded introduction to this essential volume, which focuses on the Tokugawa period to the present. The fourth edition now includes the latest scholarship on feudal women, samurai tactics, Chonin education, political reforms in the late Tokugawa period, foreigners in Nagasaki during the Meiji Restoration, and early feminism in the later Meiji period. Bringing Japanese history up to date, the final chapter details current issues, including the impact of the Gulf Wars on Japanese international relations and the recent controversies over Japanese war crimes, the so-called Comfort Women, and the Yasukuni war memorial.