By Michio Morishima

This ebook, by way of a exclusive jap economist now resident within the West, bargains a brand new interpretation of the present luck of the japanese financial system. through putting the increase of Japan within the context of its historic improvement, Michio Morishima exhibits how a strongly-held nationwide ethos has interacted with spiritual, social and technological rules imported from in different places to provide hugely special cultural characteristics. whereas Professor Morishima strains the roots of recent Japan again so far as the creation of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism from China within the 6th century, he concentrates his observations at the final a hundred and twenty years within which Japan has had huge contacts with the West. He describes the fast upward push of Japan to the prestige of a main strength following the Meiji Revolution after 1867, during which Japan broke with an extended background of isolationism, and which prepared the ground for the adoption of Western know-how and the production of a contemporary Western-style state country; and a equally meteoric upward thrust from the devastation of the second one international struggle to Japan's current place. a number of components in Japan's monetary luck are analysed: her attribute dualistic social constitution - comparable to the divide among huge and medium/small agencies - the kin of presidency and massive company, the terrible reception of liberalism and individualism, and the energy of the japanese nationalism. all through, Professor Morishima emphasises the significance of the position performed within the production of eastern capitalism by means of moral doctrines as reworked below eastern stipulations, in particular the japanese Confucian culture of entire loyalty to the enterprise and to the kingdom. This account, which makes transparent the level to which the industrial upward push of Japan is because of elements detailed to its historic traditions, could be of curiosity to a large basic readership in addition to to scholars of Japan and its heritage.

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After Hideyoshi re-unified the country himself upon coming to power after the death of Nobunaga, he launched an offensive on Korea, built the grandiose and lavish Osaka Castle, and enjoyed a life of luxury. At the same time Hideyoshi administered various policies which discouraged the creative and pioneering spirit of the Japanese. 34 Firstly, as he himself arose from the peasantry, he feared that a second Hideyoshi might emerge from among the farmers. Thus, when he became Chief Minister (kanpaku) he proclaimed the 'Sword Hunt Edict', confiscating all arms from farmers and townspeople.

In much the same way the patriots of the closing years of the Tokugawa period confronted by the powerful nations of the West eventually began to argue as to which of their two governments they should support. 32 Chapter Two The Meiji Revolution I This chapter will discuss the Meiji Revolution, or Restoration, (1867-68), which we may consider as a crucial event in the history of Japan. My interpretation of the Meiji Revolution diverges to a considerable extent from that held by most Japanese historians, but it has much in common with the interpretation of Western historiography, although there are differences in emphasis.

This stimulated the national consciousness of the Japanese and resulted in the unexpected birth and upsurge of a scholarship and ideology opposed to it, that is, kokugaku (national learning) and shinkoku shiso * ('land of gods' doctrine). Secondly, when one pursues the concept of chu* (loyalty), the most important virtue in Japanese Confucianism, one discovers that this concept does not necessarily provide a justification for the Tokugawa structure. Many right-wing intellectuals of the Tokugawa period reasoned, as did Yoshida Shoin* at one time, that they owed their loyalty to their feudal lords, feudal lords to the Shogun*, and the Shogun to the Emperor, and thus they themselves owed only an indirect loyalty to the Emperor.

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