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POLS 459 Politics of East Asia
Lecture Four
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
October 9, 2007
Timothy C. Lim
Department of Political Science
California State University, Los Angeles
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japan, State and Nation: “History
Matters”
Japan’s Past
Japan’s Present
Not just a dusty record of
History “matters,” because
“events in the past,” but the
history shapes the present,
source of “national energy”
often in profound, yet not
in modern Japan.
always obvious ways.
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
“History Matters”: Another Perspective
Men make their own history, but they do not make it as
they please; they do not make it under self-selected
circumstances, but under circumstances existing
already, given and transmitted from the past. The
tradition of all dead generations weighs like a
nightmare on the brains of the living.
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Karl Marx 1852
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japan, State, Nation: A ‘Normal’
History
A Quick Question …
In the chapter, “Japan in 1945: Historical
Background,” the author uses the section
heading, a “normal history.” What does he
mean by this?
What is abnormal about some historical
accounts or understandings of Japan?
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japan, State, Nation: A ‘Normal’
History
Answer: What is “normal” about Japan?
Japan, contrary to its popular image (especially in the
West), is “not a dreamland of harmony and social
peace, but a ‘normal’ country whose history is full of
bloodshed, treason, social unrest and injustice done
to the feeble and the poor by the powerful …. Japan
succeeded, but not without many people having to
carry the burden.”
Japan, State, Nation: A ‘Normal’
History
The film, The Last Samurai, provides a highly
stylized
glimpse into a part of “normal”
Japanese history: the transition
between two eras. We will
watch a documentary
about the film, which will
give us a sense of this
pivotal period of Japan’s
history and the path from
feudalism to an industrial society.
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japan, State, Nation: Misconceptions
“Harmony” is not an inherent cultural characteristic of
the Japanese, but the product of brutal and often
bloody repression achieved, in part, by the blade of
the samurai’s sword
Equally important to the sword, however, was the
manipulation and creation of a culture that extolled
submissiveness, obedience, duty, loyalty and honor
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese Culture: Submissive
Ideologies
In early Japan, this culture of submissiveness
wasShintoism
based on two different religious systems …
Buddhism
a. ___________________________
b. ___________________________
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese Culture: Submissive
Ideologies
Both Shintoism and Buddhism played--and continue
to play--key roles in defining Japanese culture;
indeed, in 1997, Japan had about 95 million
Buddhists and 104 million Shintoists in a total
population of only 127 million
Most Japanese, in other words, are believers of two
distinct, and not always compatible religions
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese Culture: Submissive
Ideologies
For the samurai, it is worth noting, a more
Zen
sophisticated and demanding version of Buddhism
was developed, simply called ________.
Zen emphasized physical and mental asceticism, and
called for heroic self-discipline and the rejection of
rationalism: it is inseparable from Bushido, the
samurai code of conduct and honor
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese Culture: Submissive
Ideologies
“Whereas feudal relationships in the
West were of a contractual type, and
therefore conditional and reciprocal,
in Japan they were based on a
moral imperative (giri) which gave
them an absolute value…. The samurai’s
duty toward his lord (daimyo) left no
place for free will …. It included death
without a second thought, even if it
was useless or arbitrarily ordered by
an unworthy master.”
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese Culture: Submissive
Ideologies
The notion of a “Japanese adaption” of
Confucianism
Confucian principles is important to
highlight. It shows that culture is not a fixed
thing, but an adaptable set of ideas, beliefs
and practices. Cultures don’t just arise from
whole cloth, but are created and
reproduced,
often is
bypremised
those in power.
Confucianism
on a hierarchical
A third aspect of Japanese culture is
________________
vision of the social and
political world: Confucius based the order of human societies on the
subordination of each person to his “natural” superior--children to
parent, the wife to her husband, subject to the government
In the Confucian order, those who ruled had a “Mandate
from Heaven”; in the Chinese version, subjects had a right
to rebel, but in the Japanese adaptation, the subjects had
no such right to revolt. Instead, their absolute obedience
was the essential principle to the “harmony of things”
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese Culture: Submissive
Ideologies
Despite a culture premised on “submissive
ideologies,” “Japan’s history has been rich in uprising
and treason. But the idea that rebellion is an act
contrary to nature which leads nowhere except to
loss of life for the rebels became ingrained in the
collective LESSON.
mentality”
BASIC
Culture is powerful,
but it is not absolute. Culture is part
of history. It cannot be ignored.
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese History: Tokugawa Era
1603-1853. The Tokugawa era had an immense
impact on Japan’s social, political and economic
development
One key legacy of this period was the rise of the
bureaucratic class. What was the origin of this rise?
The salaried warrior-administrator, competent,
dedicated, but also brutally arrogant:
“Bureaucracy honored, people despised” (kan son
min pi)
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese History: Tokugawa Era
Other Key Developments
Key point. All of these developments
provide insight into the path of
Japan’s subsequent industrialization
• Centralization of power
• Suppression of external contacts, while maintaining
knowledge of outside world
• Development of cash economy around big cities
• Further embedding of Confucian and Bushido ideas
around a nationalist ideology (kokutai)
• Modernization of Confucian ideology, which stressed
social consciousness, hard work and thrift
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese History: The Meiji Era (18681912)
QUESTION
What was a key factor in the collapse of the
Tokugawa regime?
The advance of the
Western powers into Asia
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese History: The Meiji Era (18681912)
Impact of the Western Imperialism
Even before Commodore Perry arrived in Edo Bay to
“open” Japan to international trade,
Japanese leaders were aware of
Western interests in Asia and, more
importantly, of Western power
What was the response within
Japan?
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese History: The First Japanese
Miracle
Japan’s economic rise is commonly seen as a post-war
phenomenon: in fact, Japan’s first “miraculous” rise occurred in
the 19th century, when the country needed only 25 years to
“catch up” to the West in terms of industrial and military power
This first “miracle” provided the basis for the whole development
process that made today’s Japan one of the largest, most
dynamic economies in the 21st century
What factors made this possible?
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese History: The First Japanese
Miracle
What factors made Japan’s rapid industrialization
possible? Put another way: Why did Japan escape
the fate of China? General Reasons
• Strong, centralized government; political stability
• Powerful ideology and culture of submissiveness, which
created basis for extraordinary mobilization of resources and
people
• Openness to foreign technology and know-how
• Well developed merchant class
• Japan’s marginal position and lack of resources
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese History: The First Japanese
Remember! All this was taking
Miracle
place in a geopolitical context in
Key features
which Japan’s very survival as a
sovereign territory was threatened
by Western power and economic
industrialization, but did interests
not act
•
State played a key role in leading
alone: relied heavily on a few family-based “merchants” (Mitsui,
Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, and Yasuda), who quickly became large scale
industrial conglomerates, the zaibatsu
•
State adopted “developmental” role from very beginning
}
– Focused on investments in “strategic” industries
– Heavy investment in education
– Facilitated dissemination of technological and managerial know-how
from abroad; purchased foreign machinery
– Subsidized and disciplined private industry; built “cooperative”
relationships
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese History: The First Japanese
Miracle
Other features
•
Rapid population growth: from 32.5 million in 1973 to 73.1 million in
1940; in addition, at the beginning of industrialism, 82 percent of
Japan’s population were still rural farmers using primitive techniques
•
Economic structure dominated by zaibatsu; however, zaibatsu
developed highly competitive relationship
•
Zaibatsu developed vertical and horizontal integration: led to
development of keiretsu (or integrated subcontracting) system
•
Economic system was highly repressive: collective action by workers
outlawed; peasants were dispossessed from their land; state readily
used violence to quell worker and peasant uprisings
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Japanese History: The First Japanese
Miracle
Learning the power game
One other very important aspect of Japan’s
first miracle was the state’s conquest and
domination of other territories, otherwise
known as colonial expansion or imperialism
Japanese imperialism, it is important to understand,
was a reflection of the competition among
capitalist powers at the time: indeed,
Japan was “forced” to do more than other
capitalist powers because it lacked the
raw materials indispensable for
industrialization
Japan in the 19th Century
Foundations of Industrialism
Larger Context: Expansion of capitalism?
Japanese History: The Path of History
Commodore Perry’s
“Opening” of Japan
Collapse of Tokugawa;
Japan’s “first miracle”
Japanese conflicts with
outside powers
Japan’s conquest of
Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria
Japan’s “surprise attack”
against the U.S.?
Tokugawa era
and before
provided
foundation for
first miracle
This overly simplistic, but still useful
diagram shows how “history” connects
from the past to the present: no one event
or process can be properly understood
without connecting it to past events or
processes and to the larger historical
context in which they all played out
The Keiretsu
This figure shows a
simplified representation
of the Mitsubishi keiretsu
The core companies are
in the middle of the
diagram, and the outer
circles are comprised of
related companies and
their subcontractors
Members of a keiretsu
maintain informal and
formal linkages (e.g.,
cross-shareholding); they
are tied together in a
long-term business
relationship/partnership
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