A note on Beheiren

Abstract

It might be useful for Concerned Asian Scholars to be aware of what is probably the most active independent peace group in Japan — a country of peace groups. Like National Mobilization in this country, which it resembles in style and outlook, Beheiren (Japan “Peace for Vietnam!” Committee) emerged as a direct response to the American bombing of North Vietnam. Since its foundation on April 24, 1965, it has remained the only major group in Japan to focus its main energies on opposing the Vietnam War. This has meant publications (books, articles, newsletters — mostly in Japanese, but two fine booklets of translations of an Asahi series: Vietnam — A Voice from the Villages and The National Liberation Front by Honda Katsuichi), demonstrations, teachins, emissaries to Vietnam, international gatherings in Japan (among its guests have been David Dellinger, Ralph Featherstone, Jean-Paul Sartre, Howard Zinn, Joan Baez), anti-war ads in American newspapers, medicine to Hanoi, and, attracting the most international attention, assistance to American military men in Japan desiring to desert.     

A note on Palestine

Political dynasties seem to flourish in Asia, whatever the political system. But this is not a relapse into traditional rule. Political dynasties are modern hybrids in which elite political aims are linked to popular norms of charismatic legitimacy. They are found in non-democratic regimes, electoral democracies and democratic movements, providing key advantages in a context of weak institutions or institutional decay. The author's detailed analysis of the situation in countries as varied as North Korea and India, Singapore and Thailand, Japan and the Philippines, shows that the descendents of charismatic leaders play a major role in politics in Asia. For they are often the key to the survival of a regime, a party or a movement.     

A critical note on UNDP's gender inequality indices

This article explains the diverse responses among the Chinese bourgeoisie in Hong Kong and Singapore to Chinese nationalist movements in the 1930s. In Singapore, the slogan of “Chinese buy Chinese goods” boosted the Chinese bourgeoisie in their business competition with Japan. The same slogan was used by the Chinese bourgeoisie in Hong Kong to emphasize increased sales of Chinese goods while Japanese imports were used by Chinese manufacturers in Hong Kong. I also interpret Chinese bourgeois nationalism in Hong Kong and Singapore as a move toward transnational economic citizenship. Emphasising their Chinese ethnicity, the bourgeoisie in Hong Kong and Singapore asked the Chinese government for favourable import tariffs. At the same time, the bourgeoisie requested the British for favourable tariffs, when they wished to export goods to markets in Britain and its colonies.     

Sharecropping contracts in rural India: A note

In this article we examine the terms of sharecropping contracts using data from rural India. We examine the effect of - (1) the sharing of input costs between landlord and tenant; (2) the tenant's capacity to borrow; and (3) the existence of outside employment opportunities for the tenant — on the share parameter. We regress the share paid by the household on a set of cultivating household and village level characteristics and find that cost sharing and the existence of outside employment opportunities significantly affect the share parameter.