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This single-volume history of Japan from c.8000 BC to the present day was widely praised on publication for combining sophistication and accessibility. It conceptualizes the country's history in terms of four major ages: the age of foragers, dispersed agriculturalists, intensive agriculture, and industrialism. Within this framework, it traces the changing patterns of human-environment relations and examines their interplay with the more familiar realms of political, socioeconomic, and cultural history. The book treats the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries in considerable detail and gives fullest coverage to the twentieth century, when this island nation became a major player on the stage of world history. In its survey of this recent history, it explores diplomatic and domestic political affairs; economic development and change; class, gender, and ethnicity; ideology and political punditry; cultural production in the arts; letters, music, and popular entertainment; and the environmental ramifications of this human activity. For the second edition, an epilogue has been added looking at Japan today and tomorrow, paying special attention to environmental and diplomatic issues.