According to a May 25, 2009, report in the Yomiuri shinbun, Japan's Liberal Democratic Party issued a three-volume manual that contained instructions on how to win voters' hearts and minds. Politicians were given hints on how to dress, how to bow, and how to smile; election candidates were urged specifically to practice smiling once a day in front of a mirror. Eiko Maruko Siniawer's book underscores the need for politicians to do more than perfect this daily exercise: “The emergence of a modern Japan did not translate into an era of peaceful and gentlemanly politics; quite the contrary, it spawned a certain political roughness that persisted in various forms” (p. 1). Siniawer's conclusion is that political violence continues to pose a threat to democracy in Japan today.
Ruffians, Yakuza, Nationalists argues that Japan, like other countries and cultures, has had its share of conflict and corruption since modern times....
