This award will support a nine month long-term visit by Professor Gregory Kasza, Department of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, to Japan for a cooperative research project with Professor Michio Muramatsu, Professor of Political Science, Faculty of Law, Kyoto University. The researchers plan to undertake a study of administrered mass organizations (AMOs) in nondemocratic Japanese regimes. This research identifies a major problem in Japanese political life that has gone relatively unstudied. Many nondemocratic regimes have created official mass organizations to control patterns of participation, mobilize for war, and effect ambitious programs of socioeconomic change. This research project examines ten systems of administered mass organizations in detail, particularly that of interwar Japan. Along with the Soviet Union and Fascist Italy, Japan was one of the originators of the AMO. AMOs were Japan's main tools of mass mobilization during World War II, and the Japanese spread this form of organization to many parts of their Asian empire. The research will be helpful in distinguishing these state- controlled, mobilizational mass organizations from political parties and interest groups. The research should have significant theoretical payoffs regarding the nature of AMOs, the ways they differ from other kinds of mass organizations and, the range and variations among AMOs in terms of their characteristics and patterns of operation. Professor Kasza is also receiving partial support for this research under a Fulbright Scholarship. Professor Muramatsu is one of Japan's most accomplished political scientists. Kyoto University's library is an excellent facility in which to carry out this research. It is anticipated that this research will result in a fruitful collaboration that will continue many years after this project is completed.
