The book is organised thematically, including Medieval and Early Modern Japan, Japan and the West, Contested Constructs in the Study of Tokugawa and Meiji Japan, and aspects of Post-War Japan.

Introduction, Bert Edström; Chapter 1 Bukky? Denrai, Maciej Kanert; Chapter 2 1247 as a Turning Point for the Kamakura Shogunate, Kondo Shigekazu; Chapter 3 A Turning Point in Court¿Bakufu Relations During the Edo Period, Valdo Ferretti; Chapter 4 The Starting Point of Modern Japanese¿Korean Relations, Lionel Babicz; Chapter 5 Deliberate Non-Communication, Arjan Van Der Werf; Chapter 6 Rescuing the Prisoners of the Maria Luz, Igor R. Saveliev; Chapter 7 The Ending of Extraterritoriality in Japan, Ian Ruxton; Chapter 8 Maruyama on Kaikoku, Joel Joos; Chapter 9 The Meiji Constitution as Miscalculation, Alistair D. Swale; Chapter 10 The End of World War One as a Turning Point in Modern Japanese History, Dick Stegewerns; Chapter 11 Takahashi Korekiyös Fiscal Policy and the Rise of Militarism in Japan During the Great Depression, Richard J. Smethurst; Chapter 12 Japan and Islam Policy During the 1930s, Selçuk Esenbel; Chapter 13 Japan¿s Foreign Policy and the Yoshida Legacy Revisited, Bert Edström; Chapter 14 The Beginning of the End? The Problem of Imperial Succession in Modern Japan, Ben-Ami Shillony;