Annual Stanley Spector Lecture: Democratizing Railroads and the Cultivation of a New Postwar Japan

Democracy was not the inevitable outcome for Japan after World War II. The new constitution set up a legal framework for a democratic system, but after years of authoritarian rule, changing people's attitudes and daily practices to match legal transformations was a major challenge for the builders of democracy in 1945. By training workers and revising labor management structures for changed social conditions, institutions of everyday life like the national railway agency contributed to the popular mindset deemed essential to democracy. Because these institutions were present in people’s daily lives all across Japan, the ideas they championed —which often focused on their own institutional interests—helped shape the resulting system that emerged.

Reception to follow.

Professor Abel is a historian of modern Japan with interests in democratization, technology, infrastructure, sports, and international relations. Her current research focuses on postwar Japan to examine the ways in which institutions of daily life (such as the national railway, the public broadcaster, the police, and Parent-Teacher Associations) work to instill democratic practices and attitudes in a population. Her latest book, Dream Super-Express (winner of the 2024 Modern Japan History Association Book Prize), views 1960s Japan through the window of the bullet train, showing how infrastructure operates beyond its intended use to perform cultural and sociological functions.