The description of this course should elaborate that it specifically approaches a Marxist/Communist perspective regarding the transitional period following the last years of Japan's final shogunate and into the industrial revolution, concluding with World War II. The class is majorly theory-based, with examinations of works by Marx, Lenin, Foucault, and later Japan-specific authors, including a book co-authored by Stolz. For a 3000-level course, it's fairly dense, especially if theory is not your forte. Stolz is a nice-enough instructor, but the course is misleading, and I would not advise anybody to take this course to fulfill a degree requirement.
The coursework is not majorly difficult aside from the readings; It has a common format of a couple of papers, some writing exercises, and a final exam.

This will come out as a low rating but I don't mean to completely trash the instructor or his course. A very specific kind of person would really enjoy this course, but most people probably will not.

Stolz is a Marxist (he might quibble over the label, but it's completely obvious) and his grand theory is that the Japanese Empire's expansion was caused by the capitalist forces and stages of development described by Marx and Lenin. Accordingly, a huge chunk of the reading is Das Kapital (and all the boring Marxist economic theory that implies) and a few other communist writers, some during the empire. Stolz is a nice guy, and you discuss the work, but all of it is in the framework of the "capitalist" roots of the empire. If you don't believe that, tough luck.

The class itself is not that hard besides the dense reading; mostly a few papers.