ASIA 241 Sources of Asian Tradition
The civilizational dynamics that prompt action, including the roles of culture, custom, religion, and historical legacies. The civilizations of China, Japan, and India. Effects of modernization and Western influence on traditional societies.

ASIA 245X Comparative Politics in China, India, and Japan (Political Science 245)
Political, economic, and societal dimensions of Japan, China, the Koreas, and India, including security issues in the region and the foreign economic policies of each country.

ASIA 340X State and Society in Medieval and Early Modern Japan (Political Science 340)
Economic, political, social, and cultural change in Japan from the Kamakura Period (1185) to the Meiji Restoration (1868). Description and explanation of the fluctuating fortunes and constitution of successive military governments (bakufu), the changing social, economic, and political relations among the warrior class (bushi), the peasantry, the bakufu, merchants, and the imperial (kuge) aristocracy, and the transformations of world-views and cultural understandings of class. Comparisons to the medieval and early modern experiences of Europe.

ASIA 345X The Making of Modern Japan (Sociology 345)
Exploration of the “Japanese route” to the modern world from the Meiji Restoration to the present. Study of the interplay among economic, political, social, cultural, and geopolitical forces that led to the “making” of contemporary Japan.

ASIA 346X Advanced Political Systems of Asia (Political Science 346)
Political systems of Japan, China, the Koreas, and India. Evolution of political institutions, pluralistic pressures on policy, the nature of the state, the literature on political regimes, and recent attempts at reform and change.

ASIA 349 Asian Political Thought
Great issues of Asian political and social thought with focus on China, India, and Japan. Political equality and the social order, power and authority, the nature of the state and problems of legitimacy, group consciousness and the role of the individual, communal and individual rights, and conceptions of justice and moral order. Incorporation of selected readings from Western thought for comparison and contrast.

ASIA 470 Internship
Work experience related to student’s major, jointly supervised by instructor and agency personnel. Prerequisite: junior or senior status. Pass-Fail only.

ASIA 490-491 Honors Thesis
Prerequisites: senior status with GPA of 3.5 in the major and 3.3 overall, and permission of the Director of International and Area Studies.