This project will place in comparative perspective Japan's form of government and select aspects of state policy toward welfare, civil liberties, and industry. Two central goals are ( 1) to compare the degree and form of state control over society prevailing in Japan and other countries, and (2) to establish which of Japan's institutions and policies are truly distinctive and which have been common to other countries. The research will examine critically the many comparative assumptions that have shaped scholarly discourse about Japan in an effort to place the study of Japanese politics on a more solid comparative foundation.