In this newly revised edition of their classic work, Mason and Caiger trace the enthralling evolution of modern Japan from its early pre-history through the post-Cold War period to the collapse of the Bubble Economy in the early 1990s. New findings shed additional light on the origins of Japanese civilization and the birth of Japanese culture.

Not merely a chronology of wars, imperial successions, and treaties, A History of Japan provides an in-depth analysis of the religion, culture, and arts of the Japanese people from the 6th century B.C. to the present. This contemporary classic, now updated and revised, continues to be an essential text in Japanese studies.