Japan

Political Culture
1. Homogeneity
2. Uniqueness
3. Isolation
4. Borrowing
5. Geography
6. Communitarian
7. Adaptability/Organizational skills
8. Emperor
9. Power is behind the scenes

1. Homogeneity
• 98% Japanese
• Korean and Chinese minority
• Status of Burakumin

2. Uniqueness
3. Isolation
From: 1600/1638
To: 1853

Tradition foreign ideas
4. Borrowing
Japanese spin on foreign ideas
“Japanification”

5. Geography
From: Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, http://tochi.mlit.go.jp/h19hakusho/set_0_eng.htm

6. Communitarian
Individualistic?
“The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”
Communitarian?
“The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”
The role of geography and economics

7. Adaptability and
Organizational Skills
Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry data from: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/challenge/energy/nuclear/p-necess-e.html

8. Emperor
• First Emperor,
Jimmu Tenno
(660-585 BC),
• Great, Great, Great,
Grandson of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess,
• National Foundation
Day: Feb 11

9. Power behind the Scenes
Tanaka Kakuei
LDP, 1960s-1980s
Ozawa Ichiro
DPJ, 1990s-present

Periods of History
1. 10 th -17 th : Feudal Japan
2. 1600-1868 Tokugawa Era
3. 1868 Meiji Restoration
4. 1920s-1940s:
– Institutionalists vs. Nationalists

1. Feudal Japan
From: Government of Saskatchewan, 7 th Grade Curriculum, http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/midlsoc/gr7/74handouts1.html

Samurai Class
Nitobe Inazo, Bushido:
The Soul of Japan ,
1908

Centralization Grows: Shogun
• Oda Nobunaga 1568-1582
• Toyotomi Hideyoshi 1582-1598
– Unified Japan 1590
– 1598: Tokugawa shogunate vs. Mitsunari shogunate

Battle of Sekigahara, 1600

Sekigahara Action Figure

2. Tokugawa Era: 1600-1868

Tokugawa Era
• Isolation
• Centralized Feudalism
• Emperor?

Samurai of 1860s

3. Meiji Restoration
• End of isolation
• Restoration and revolution
• Birth of Modern Japan

1853 US Navy in Tokyo Bay
Treaty of Kanagawa , March 31, 1854

Meiji Restoration:
Emperor Mutsuhito
1852-1912
Meiji Era: 1867-1912
(enlightened rule)

The Restoration
• 1889 Constitution
• Article 1. The Empire of Japan shall be reigned over and governed by a line of
Emperors unbroken for ages eternal.
• Article 3. The Emperor is sacred and inviolable.
• Article 4. The Emperor is the head of the
Empire, combining in Himself the rights of sovereignty...
• Article 11. The Emperor has the supreme command of the Army and Navy.

Power and Expansion
Sino-Japanese War 1894-5
Treaty Of Shimonoseki
Russo-Japanese War 1904-5
Treaty of Portsmouth

4. Nationalism and War
• Ultranationalists vs. Institutionalists
• Washington Naval Treaty 1922
• London Naval Treaty 1930
• 1931 Manchuria (Manchukuo)

Greater East Asia
Co-Prosperity Sphere

December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor

May 1945 Tokyo Firebombing

Tokyo after the Attacks

Hiroshima August 6, 1945

After the bomb

Nagasaki August 9, 1945

Post-War Japanese Government
• Surrender , Occupation and Punishment
• US-Japan Security Treaty , 1951 (1952)
Japanese Foreign Minister
Shigemitsu Mamoru
Signing the surrender
Agreement, 9/2/45