The Rejuvenation of Political Economy

This book provides the basic knowledge of Japanese contributions in political economy and ongoing research agenda such as the pursuit of theoretical consistency in Marxian economics by Uno School; The concept of ‘civil society’ as criterion of existing socio-economic structure; mathematical reconstruction of Marxian theory; and the analysis of environmental pollution. The new generation of Japanese political economists in collaboration with their overseas counterparts has produced new insights in theory and in the newly emerging structure of world economy.

The themes include: the broader tendencies in international capitalism and how past patterns of uneven development are now changing; the role of international finance in affecting both national and international growth and employment patterns; analysis of recent growth patterns in Asia; the specific issue emerging within the Asian region and the implications for economics, social change and geopolitics.

Nobuharu Yokokawa is Professor of Economics at Musashi University, Tokyo Japan. He was educated at Shiga University (BA), the University of Tokyo (MSc) and Cambridge University (PhD). His publications includeValue, Employment and Crisis (in Japanese, Shakai Hyouron Sya). He had co-editedCapitalism in Evolution (Edward Elgar), Crises of Global Economies and the Future of Capitalism: Reviving Marxian Crisis Theory (Routledge, forthcoming). Since 2007, he has been editor of the Uno Theory Newsletter. He is Chairman of the JSPE Committee for International Communication and Exchange.

Kiichiro Yagi is Vice President and Professor of Economics at Setsunan University, Japan. He was educated in the University of Tokyo and Nagoya University. He received his PhD from Kyoto University. He taught political economy and history of economics at Kyoto University for a quarter of century. Since the mid of nineteen-nineties he made efforts to integrate the ideas of evolutionary and institutional economics with classical political economy including Marxian economics. He is Chief Representative of the JSPE.

Hiroyasu Uemura is Professor of Economics at Yokohama National University, Japan. He is a contributor to Regulation Theory, i.e. a research program which analyzes how economic institutions evolve in the long run and defines diverse contemporary brands of capitalism. He has published books and articles widely in the field of institutional economics and macroeconomic analysis.

Richard Westra is Designated Professor, Graduate School of Law, Nagoya University, Japan. He received his PhD in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University, Canada. He has authored and edited ten books. His work has been published in numerous international peer reviewed academic journals.