This very descriptive and informative study adds to our understanding of how global factors affect domestic politics. It also provides further evidence that the 1990s for Japan was not a “lost decade.” Considering status-based equality to be a human right, Jennifer Chan-Tiberghien argues that Japan's policies, legislation, rulemaking, and enforcement in this regard and the way the Japanese perceive inequalities are greatly influenced by political and intellectual developments in the global domain. Primacy is given to the world of ideas and the way flows from the global arena pass through local nongovernmental organization (NGO) networks and media to inject new ideas into Japanese society.

The book is well written; the arguments are cogent. An initial interest in the evolution of human rights would be well guided by the list of references. The book challenges the reader in numerous ways to reconsider how globalization is affecting society. While deterministic models that...

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