"Empires on the Waterfront offers a new spatial framework for understanding Japans extended transition into the modern world of nation-states. This study examines a largely unacknowledged system of “special trading ports” that operated under full Japanese jurisdiction in the shadow of the better-known treaty ports. By allowing Japan to circumvent conditions imposed on treaty ports, the special trading ports were key to achieving autonomy and regional power." -- Publisher's description

Part I: Japan in the world -- Special trading ports: a new framework for the opening of Japan -- Geographies of direct export: rice and coal, 1858-1889 -- Part II: Ports in the nation -- The making of Moji -- The paradox of informal imperialism -- Part III: Moji and the empire -- The Sino-Japanese war comes home -- Securing status: Sovereignty and open ports.