Join the club: effects of club membership on Japanese high school students’ self-concept

Extracurricular clubs are widely believed to be an important part of education in Japan, and Japanese students devote an enormous amount of time and energy to them. Until recently, however, there has been very little research examining either the content or the outcomes of participation in such clubs. In this paper, based on a nationally representative survey of Japanese high school seniors (n = 3753) we examine the relationship between participating in extracurricular clubs and Japanese students' self-concepts. Our findings demonstrate that students who join extracurricular clubs have more positive self-concepts than those who do not join clubs, and students in sports clubs have higher self-concepts than students in non-sports clubs. This paper, therefore, offers important data for scholars interested in non-academic aspects of Japanese education in general, and demonstrates the impact that extracurricular activities have on Japanese students' self-concepts in particular.     

Clausewitzian Alchemy and the Modern Character of War

Current conflicts reinforce, rather than undermine, the Clausewitzian paradigm. It is not the nature of war itself that is changing, but rather the dominant relationships between the components of its nature. Recognizing that the relationship between the interaction with passion, reason, and chance with the people, the state, and the military, which prevailed in Clausewitz's day, does not continue to prevail in our day deeply rests on ideas established in On War. Three shifts in the character of war have materialized: the collapse of warfare, the intersection of strategy and politics, and the atomization of political power. To act successfully in future conflicts, we must move beyond any simple Clausewitzian alchemy and understand the countless ways in which passion, chance, and rationality can be alloyed with the state, the people, and the military.     

Learning About a Chinese Village in a Leninist-Party Authoritarian State

How does one overcome the institutionalized obstacles to understanding the networks of power in the PRC which reach down in complex ways from the center to the village? There is no reason for villagers who need patrons for access to scarce resources to commit to telling the truth. There is no reason for local officials to commit to telling the truth when careers depend on pleasing higher-ups and not on revealing how patron–client networks work. After 25 years and almost three dozen visits to one rural county, certain research techniques were developed—and are described—for seeing the invisible and understanding the political context which shapes local opportunities.