Introduction

The Introduction lays out the book’s central argument: that the global transition from empire as a project of territorial acquisition to one of empire as a project of territorial maintenance led the Japanese Empire to engage in “spatial politics” in order to legitimate and sustain its claims to colonized lands, and that one manifestation of these spatial politics was the practice of imperial tourism. It situates the history of Japanese imperial tourism within two contexts: one, the rise of the nation-state as the new paradigm of political sovereignty; and two, the Japanese Empire’s own efforts to define colonial territory as both part of Japan and administratively distinct from the inner territory. It also introduces the concepts of place and territory, and provides an overview of the book’s chapters.