Introduction - Contested Governance in Japan: Modes, sites and issues Part 1 Sites of Governance 1. Global Governance, the G7/8 Summit and Japan 2. Japan's Role in Emerging East Asian Governance: Regional and national implications 3. Governance, Democracy and the Political Economy of the Japanese State 4. Local Governance: The role of referenda and the rise of independent governors 5. Governance, Globalization and the Japanese Financial System: Resistance or restructuring? 6. Koizumi's 'Robust Policy': Governance, the Japanese welfare employment regime and comparative gender studies Part 2 Issues of Governance 7. Japan and Global Environmental Governance 8. Governance, Asian Migrants and the role of Civil Society 9. Corruption and Governance in Japan 10. Whose Problem? Japan's homeless people as an issue of local and central governance 11. The Political Economy of Japanese 'Corporate Governance': A metaphor for capitalist rationalization 12. Governance though the Family: The political function of the domestic in Japan