Japanese Political Philosophy

We analyse the contention that privacy is an alien concept within Japanese society, put forward in various presentations of Japanese cultural norms at least as far back as Benedict in The chrysanthemum and the sword: patterns of Japanese culture. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1946. In this paper we distinguish between information privacy and physical privacy. As we show, there is good evidence for social norms of limits on the sharing and use of personal information (i.e. information privacy) from traditional interactions in (...) Japanese society, as well as constitutional evidence from the late 19th century (in the Meiji Constitution of 1889). In this context the growing awareness of the Japanese public about problems with networked information processing by public sector and commercial organisations from the 1980s (when a law governing public sector use of personal information was first passed) to recent years (when that law was updated and a first law governing commercial use of personal information was adopted) are not the imposition or adoption of foreign practices nor solely an attempt to lead Japanese society into coherence with the rest of the OECD. Instead they are drawing on the experience of the rest of the developed world in developing legal responses to the breakdown of social norms governing interchange and use of personal information, stressed by the architectural changes wrought by networked information processing capabilities. This claim is supported by consideration of standard models of Japanese social interactions as well as of Supreme Court judgements declaring reasonable expectations of protection of privacy to hold in Japan. (shrink)

This book is not another parable of Japan's economic success; it provides rich and systematic descriptions of Japanese microeconomic institutions and interprets their work in terms familiar to Western economists. A systematic, in-depth analysis of Japanese institutions of this kind has never been available before. In making his comparative analysis of the Japanese system, Professor Aoki critically examines conventional notions about the microstructure of the market economy that have strongly shaped and influenced economists' approach to industrial organization. While these notions (...) may constitute an appropriate foundation for the analysis of the highly market-oriented Western economies, the author has found that a more complete understanding of the Japanese economy requires us to broaden such 'specific' notions. At one level, therefore, this book may be regarded as a provocative exercise in comparative industrial organization and the theory of the firm. To the extent that this approach is convincing, the book suggests a reordering of focus and emphasis in these studies. (shrink)

This dissertation analyzes the philosophical theories and politics of Kitaro Nishida , the founder of modern Japanese philosophy, and Tetsuro Watsuji , the second most famous philosopher in Japan. Both Nishida and Watsuji develop a "spatialized" conception of history to contrast with a temporal model which had the effect of situating Europe as the most advanced form of modern culture. According to their view, the representation of world history should take into account the contemporaneous developments of all cultures. ;Positioning themselves (...) as non-European thinkers but sharing in the modern European intellectual tradition, Nishida and Watsuji develop original philosophical positions in the language of Western philosophy. After the initial formulation of the theory of "pure experience" under the influence of William James, Nishida develops a metaphysical theory of "place," a dialectical system inspired by Hegel. Using Heideggerian phenomenology, Watsuji develops his own theories of "milieu" and "Being-between" . In an attempt to go beyond Eurocentrism, these theories sought to widen the context of Western philosophy from a non-Western point of view. ;However, in the 1940s when Japan became an imperialist state, Nishida and Watsuji used their philosophical theories to justify wartime political ideology. Their anti-Eurocentrism thus allied with Japanese nationalism. However, their philosophical theories could have been developed to critique nationalism rather than endorse it. Their error resulted from the persistent framework of "East vs. West" which essentialized Japan's identity vis-a-vis the West. (shrink)

: Watsuji Tetsurō defined ethics as being generated by a double negation: the individual's negation of the community and the self-negation of the individual who returns to the community. Thus, ethics for him is based on the individual's sacrifice for the collectivity. This position results in the conception of the community as an absolute. I contend that there is a congruence between Watsuji's conception of ethics as self-sacrifice and the way he perceived the Japanese political system. To him, the imperial (...) system in Japan is based on the organic unity of the Japanese people, represented by the emperor, who embodies the general will of, and is therefore coterminous with, the Japanese nation. (shrink)

Introduction -- The historical foundations of Russian and Japanese philosophies -- Space in NOH : plays and icons -- Models of cultural space derived from Nishida Kitar and Semën L. Frank (Basho and Sobornost) -- Space and aesthetics : a dialogue between Nishida Kitar and Mikhail Bakhtin -- From community to time, space, development : Trubetzkoy, Nishida, Watsuji -- Conclusion -- Postface: Resistance and slave nations.

ABSTRACTThis article discusses some common narratives found in discourses on national identity in Russia and Japan, and their temporal transformations reflecting the needs of a nation as it becomes a colonial empire. National identity discourse is examined from the viewpoint of national antagonism arising from an external threat. Russian and Japanese intellectuals, with their vastly different historical and cultural heritage, have dwelled upon similar issues pertaining to modernization of the state and adoption or rejection of foreign ideas and ways of (...) life. There are several themes in Russian and Japanese discourses on national identity that share a significant overlap, particularly themes of national uniqueness and a ‘special path’, deterministic worldviews, imperial cosmopolitanism/messianism and criticism of ‘Western’ philosophical systems and concepts. This article elucidates the shared aspects of these narratives and philosophical inquiries in Russia and Japan and puts them into a historical context. (shrink)

This paper aims to show that two eminent Marxists in the 1930s, the Italian Antonio Gramsci and the Japanese Tosaka Jun, shared three important characteristics of so-called Western Marxism: the methodological development of Marxism, the focus on the superstructure, and the pessimism about the impossibility of immediate revolution. Showing that Gramsci and Tosaka shared these characteristics enables us to revisit the framework of “Western Marxism,” which confusingly consists of both theoretical characteristics and geographical criteria. Looking at Gramsci and Tosaka on (...) the same plane allows us to revisit Marxist thought different from the orthodox Marxism in Soviet Russia, and not strictly as a Western, but as a part of potentially global movement of thought. (shrink)

Competing interests among big powers played a role in the making of World War II. But, and not separated from this, another element had a serious impact: the sense of psychological insecurity experienced, each in its own way, by Germany and Japan in the context of their quest for recognition by other major powers and the implications this had internationally. In connection with their material conditions compared to other great powers, this pushed Germany and Japan to embrace policies that were (...) ultimately self-defeating. It led them to see and assess themselves, others, and the international environment in conflicting terms and, faced with the unwillingness of other big powers to accommodate them to the extent they wanted, to overplay their hand, with lethal outcomes as a result. (shrink)

The dissertation explores the period 1905--1935 to critically examine Japanese modern literature. I draw on newspaper accounts, popular fiction and philosophy to argue that the dominant form of aesthetic modernism in metropolitan Japan must be understood within the context of Japan's colonialism in East Asia. My research suggests that a cultural logic I call "erotic-grotesque-nonsense" from ero-guro-nansensu, or the genre name for the most popular narrative fiction written at the time, best describes this moment in Japan. I draw on the (...) work of tabloid essayists like Ishimori Sei'ichi and novelists like Yuasa Katsuhiko who were based in the Japanese colonial cities of Seoul, Korea and Dalian, China. Their concerns, including gender blurring, ethnic passing among Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and the uncanny, anticipate by some 20 years similar themes arising in metropolitan Tokyo. The body of the thesis focuses on the modernist erotic-grotesque-nonsense literature---especially the wildly popular horror/detective novels of Edogawa Rampo and Yumeno Kyusaku---and shows that it is inextricable from colonial imperialism. For example, both Rampo and Kyusaku. draw on the work of the popular sexologist Tanaka Kogai who was chief colonial psychiatrist in Taiwan from 1896--1905; colonial themes and experiences fill Tanaka's essays published in Tokyo during the 1920's. Similarly, Umehara, Hokumei's scandalous and widely 1896--1905; colonial themes and experiences fill Tanaka's essays published in Tokyo during the 1920's. Similarly, Umehara Hokumei's scandalous and widely read literary monthly Grotesque was conceived and published first in Shanghai in 1927, and highlights colonial themes and inscriptions. Edogawa Rampo's novels describe the travels of his famous detective Akechi Kogoro back and forth between Tokyo and Korea, China, and India. In considering colonial texts from the 1910's and metropolitan Tokyo from the late 1920's and early 1930's together, following post-colonial theory and cultural studies, I insist that only when Japan's colonial periphery in East Asia is treated together with the center of Tokyo in the same analytic field, can we adequately apprehend Japan's imperial modernity and the war that it spawned. (shrink)

Recent social theory has identified various institutional forces operating at a global level promoting novel trends towards “individualization”, “reflexive self-identity” and “new individualism” (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, 2001; Giddens, 1991, 1992; Elliott and Lemert, 2009, 2009a). This article develops an exploratory overview of the theory of new individualism with reference to Japanese sociologies of self specifically and contemporary Japanese society more generally. Detailing the large-scale societal shift in Japan from traditional forms of identity-construction (based on a citizenship model of social order) (...) to post-traditional forms of identity-construction (promoted by globalization and neoliberal policies), the article distinguishes between four discourses of the self in post-war Japanese society: the age of the ideal; the age of the dream; the age of fiction; and, the age of fragmentation. Moreover, the article examines the Japanese employment system and the emergence of new individualist employment, as well as considering the emotional impacts of a rise in suicides in contemporary Japan. The argument is that the new individualist thesis can contribute to a sociological understanding of recent social transformations in Japan. However, situating new individualism in the context of Japan also highlights significant tensions in processes of new individualism, tensions between individual initiatives and institutional pressures. (shrink)

Pictures of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–5 have come down to us from China and Japan. This article shows that war pictures in both countries relied on a Western-inspired iconography. Moreover, it argues that Japan triumphed not only on the battlefield but also in the ‘picture war’, adopting more of the discourses which were important in the West at the end of the nineteenth century.

© 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.Transnational migration is seldom associated with Japan even though Japan has been dependent on immigrants for several generations. The research presented in this article explores a reform effort viewed as radical within the Japanese context that took place in a metropolitan school known for having one of the largest number of immigrant students in Japan, most of whom hail from Latin America, Southeast Asia, and China. While many of these “Newcomers” are of Japanese ancestry, absence (...) from the homeland for two to four generations has left them without the cultural and linguistic skills to navigate the nuances of Japanese society. As a result, schools, which have never had to respond to the needs of immigrant youth, find themselves at a loss as to how to integrate young people whose parents have been drawn back from the Japanese diaspora through government policies designed to assuage the labor shortage of the 1980s and 1990s. Over the course of 5 months of ethnographic field work in the community in which this school is located the author offers insights gleaned from extensive time spent with social workers, translators, government workers, teachers, staff, students, parents, and community liaison volunteers, all of whom shared their frustrations and challenges with the education of immigrant youth within the context and constraints of Japanese schools. (shrink)

The essays in this book take a new approach to the subject, engaging substantially with the philosophical texts of members of the Kyoto School, and ...

Nishida Kitaro, originator of the Kyoto School and 'father of Japanese Philosophy' is usually viewed as an essentially apolitical thinker who underwent a 'turn' in the mid-1930s, becoming an ideologue of Japanese imperialism. Political Philosophy in Japan challenges the view that a neat distinction can be drawn between Nishida's apolitical 'pre-turn' writings and the apparently ideological tracts he produced during the war years. In the context of Japanese intellectual traditions, this book suggests that Nishida was a political thinker form the (...) very beginning of his career, and consequently, his later political works cannot be dismissed as peripheral to his philosophical project. Counter-intuitively however, Christopher Goto-Jones argues that a consistently political reading of his philosophy reveals a dissenting standpoint even during the height of the Pacific War. This book argues that the prevailing postwar tendency to dismiss interwar and wartime Japanese culture as fascist or ultra nationalist en total neglects a lively political discourse, which contained some serous and profound political insight and even dissent. By suggesting that Nishida tetsugaku was a voice of dissent during Japan's Great East Asia War, Goto-Jones presents a case for the rehabilitation of Nishida as a political thinker, and as an example of a Japanese resistance, able to make a valuable contribution to contemporary debates about international political, globalization , and inter-cultural relations. Offering a unique and potentially controversial view of the subject of Nishida and the Kyoto School, The Political Philosophy of Japan will be of huge interest to anyone studying Japanese History, Political Philosophy and comparative philosophy alike. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to examine the direction which the Japanese welfare state has pursued and what it has left behind, by contrasting the points of view of two representative approaches in economics: the traditional income approach and the capability approach which has been newly proposed by Amartya Sen. In extracting the structure of the tax-social security system, the paper refers to the framework of John Rawls, precepts of “common sense of justice” and their higher principles in his (...) theory of justice. The main conclusion is that Japanese welfare state has followed universal liberalism based on continuity, the essential characteristic of the income approach, and has left behind the equality of the differences. This paper indicates that the capability approach which makes it possible to analyze the discontinuity within an individual’s life by focusing on her doings and beings is also suitable for understanding the differences among individuals. (shrink)

During the Fifteen Year War , the Japanese state employed the exigencies of war as a pretext for assimilating local communities, integrating them into the politico-economic structure of the state and suppressing expressions of subjectivity not conducive to state monopolization of power. Defeat, however, brought Japan's fifty-year colonial venture to devastating close. Even as the Japanese struggled to survive, they began to take seriously the prospect of freedom and democracy promised by the victors. Hopes arose of reclaiming formerly suppressed subjectivities (...) and of rebuilding communities fragmented through invasive central control. Basing their work on explicit and implicit critiques of Japanese colonialism, Japanese intellectuals sought to construct a theoretical foundation for a democratic society predicated on a revised understanding of the relationship of the subject to the state. Writing from a variety of perspectives, they engaged in a vigorous discussion that examined fundamental questions concerning human existence in the hopes of ascertaining a stable foundation for freedom. This intellectual efflorescence occurred, however, amid a growing awareness of Japan's own colonization status in the postwar as an occupied, even colonized state. Disparities between the conceptions of freedom and the practices of the Occupation gradually became apparent to them. My analysis of these disparities reveals not only the complexity of Japanese intellectuals' relationships to the Occupation's ideals and practices, but also illuminates important ethical and political issues pertaining to freedom and community, exposing the apparent contradiction of liberal democracy and the logic of empire that formed the backdrop of postwar investigations into freedom. (shrink)

In 1981, the Atlantic Council's Energy Policy Committee, in collaboration with the Japanese Committee for Energy Policy Promotion and the Japanese Institute of Energy Economics, published a joint policy paper entitled 'U.S.-Japan Energy Relationships in the 1980s.'.

The quantity and quality of Japanese political studies in China are influenced by political developments in China and Japan, Sino-Japanese relations, and academic development of political science. After the collapse of Japan's bubble economy and the end of the LDP's long rule in the early 1990s, many Chinese scholars diverted their attention from economic issues and took more interest in Japanese political studies. Political issues such as the resurgence of nationalism, the rise of right-wing forces, the end of the , (...) the political origin of long and heavy recessions, the , national strategy, and foreign policies have been discussed and debated. New approaches and perspectives such as the political pluralist approach, the new institutional approach, the ecological approach and the political process approach have been used. It is imperative to overcome the institutional, political, and financial problems in order to improve the state and raise the quality of Japanese political studies in China. (shrink)