This textbook highlights key aspects of Japan's history and culture from the Tokugawa era (1600-1868) to the present. The textbook includes role plays, primary documents, first-person accounts, diary entries, excerpts from literary works, songs, poems, maps and timelines, charts and graphs, and political cartoons. It also includes a glossary that lists important words used throughout the text. Chapters in the textbook are: (1) "Building the Early Modern State, 1600 to 1912" (Edo Period of the Tokugawa Shogunate; Meiji Restoration and the Building of Modern Japan; Conservative Reaction and the Costs of Building a Modern State); (2) "Modernization, Crisis, and War, 1912 to 1945" (Taisho: Challenging Authority and Tradition, 1912-1926; Showa: Economic Crisis and Rise of Militarism, 1926-1937; Japan in World War II, 1937-1945); and (3) "Recovery and the Rise of an Economic Superpower, 1945 to the Present" (Occupation and Recovery, 1945-1952; Economic Growth and Social Change; Japan and the World). The teacher's manual is organized similarly to the text, with three chapters, each with three sections. The manual includes a synopsis of each section, student achievement, definitions of key concepts, directions for student activities, possible responses to questions and activities posed in the student text, and an estimate of the number of class periods needed to complete the material, based on 50-minute periods. The teacher's manual also contains handouts. (BT)