ArgumentHijōji was an important keyword in the militarist Japan of the 1930s. Previous scholarship has assumed that such language sprung from the global financial crisis of 1929, and subsequent diplomatic events. Our article demonstrates, however, that a full-bodied language of emergency was crafted well before the collapse of the global economy, and against the backdrop of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, which destroyed the Japanese capital. While previous “great earthquakes” had been opportunities to strengthen Japanese participation in the global (...) project of science, this one led more dramatically to a crisis of reason, and indirectly contributed to the spiritual, anti-western, and anti-rational rhetoric of what became the “Showa Restoration.” This and other post-disaster landscapes, we argue, should be examined as compelling sites for the crafting of political language – sites of opportunity and meaning as well as trial. While the phrase “state of emergency” was coined under very different circumstances in post-war Britain, it gained power and charisma in Japan, and likely other places around the world, by its association with natural catastrophe. Thus did modern politics establish a new connection with the traditional realm of the sublime, and in the case of Japan, the supernatural. Emergency's ability to associate politics with nature would never disappear, and has perhaps even strengthened in the early twenty-first century. (shrink)

This paper proposes that an important method for understanding the ethics of Japanese management is the systematic study of its Confucian traditions and the writings of Confucius. Inconsistencies and dysfunction in Japanese ethical and managerial behavior can be attributed to contradictions in Confucius' writings and inconsistencies between the Confucian code and modern realities. Attention needs to be directed to modern Confucian philosophy since, historically Confucian thought has been an early warning system for impending change.

While Sorai's intellectual debt to Xunzi is often mentioned, the similarities between their views have not often been explored at length in English2.2 Further, while Maruyama Masao does compare the two thinkers in his influential monograph Studies in the Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, he stresses (apparent) differences between Xunzi and Sorai, in order to hail Sorai's uniqueness. Without meaning to take anything away from Sorai as an independent thinker, I maintain that with regard to precisely those views for which (...) Sorai is lauded as unique - that dao is a product of real people that evolved over time and continues to evolve - his position was also held by Xunzi. In addition, there is a related yet rarely highlighted aspect of Xunzi's thought that is also acknowledged by Sorai. That is, virtues acquired by participating in the way in turn qualify one to contribute to its continuous open-ended development. (shrink)

Dificilmente se encontrará um outro país que foi tão influenciado por outras culturas e civilizações como o Japão. De fato, os grandes pontos de viragem da sua história foram marcados pelo encontro com outras civilizações e culturas. Porém, as grandes mudanças que se operaram como resultado de influências exteriores nunca conseguiram pôr em questão as premissas básicas da cultura japonesa. Prevaleceu sempre um sistema de valores que carece de uma clara orientação transcendental e universalista. Enquanto no mundo ocidental a dimensão (...) transcendental do cristianismo exerceu uma forte influência na criação de valores universais à luz dos quais se configurou a realidade sociopolítica, no Japão o budismo, a religião dominante durante o período feudal, nunca conseguiu alcançar tal hegemonia e oferecer princípios orientadores para a ordem politica e social. O valor supremo ao qual tudo o resto se deve subordinar é a ordem sociopolítica da nação. Ser um membro fiel desta ordem e contribuir para a preservação da sua harmonia adquire um caráter quase sagrado. Aqui reside o núcleo essencial da religiosidade do povo japonês, frequentemente designada por Niponismo . Foi esta matriz cultural e religiosa de natureza etnocêntrica que permitiu ao Japão adotar muitos elementos da cultura ocidental para modernizar o país e manter, ao mesmo tempo, a sua própria identidade cultural. Palavras-chave : Japão. Religião., Cultura. Coletividade Social. Niponismo.It is probably difficult to find a country that was so greatly influenced by other cultures and civilizations as Japan has been. In fact, the great changes that took place in Japanese history were the result of the encounter with other civilizations and cultures. The influences received, however, were never able to put into question the basic premises of Japanese culture. A value system that lacked a clear transcendental and universalistic orientation remained dominant. While in the west the transcendental dimension of Christianity exerted a strong influence in the creation of universal values in the light of which the sociopolitical reality was shaped, in Japan, Buddhism―the dominant religion throughout the feudal period―was never able to attain such hegemony and offer normative and universal values for the political and social order. In Japan the supreme value to which everything else should be subordinated is the political and social order of the nation. To be a faithful member of the social collectivity and contribute to the preservation of its harmony acquires a quasi-sacred value. Here resides the core essence of the religiosity of the Japanese people, often referred to as Nipponism . It was this cultural and religious matrix of an ethnocentric nature that enabled Japan to adopt many elements of western culture in order to modernize the nation and at the same time maintain its own cultural identity. Key words : Japan. Religion. Culture. Social Collectivity. Nipponism. Dificilmente se encontrará um outro país que foi tão influenciado por outras culturas e civilizações como o Japão. De fato, os grandes pontos de viragem da sua história foram marcados pelo encontro com outras civilizações e culturas. Porém, as grandes mudanças que se operaram como resultado de influências exteriores nunca conseguiram pôr em questão as premissas básicas da cultura japonesa. Prevaleceu sempre um sistema de valores que carece de uma clara orientação transcendental e universalista. Enquanto no mundo ocidental a dimensão transcendental do cristianismo exerceu uma forte influência na criação de valores universais à luz dos quais se configurou a realidade sociopolítica, no Japão o budismo, a religião dominante durante o período feudal, nunca conseguiu alcançar tal hegemonia e oferecer princípios orientadores para a ordem politica e social. O valor supremo ao qual tudo o resto se deve subordinar é a ordem sociopolítica da nação. Ser um membro fiel desta ordem e contribuir para a preservação da sua harmonia adquire um caráter quase sagrado. Aqui reside o núcleo essencial da religiosidade do povo japonês, frequentemente designada por Niponismo . Foi esta matriz cultural e religiosa de natureza etnocêntrica que permitiu ao Japão adotar muitos elementos da cultura ocidental para modernizar o país e manter, ao mesmo tempo, a sua própria identidade cultural. Palavras-chave : Japão, Religião, Cultura, Coletividade Social, Niponismo Abstract It is probably difficult to find a country that was so greatly influenced by other cultures and civilizations as Japan has been. In fact, the great changes that took place in Japanese history were the result of the encounter with other civilizations and cultures. The influences received, however, were never able to put into question the basic premises of Japanese culture. A value system that lacked a clear transcendental and universalistic orientation remained dominant. While in the west the transcendental dimension of Christianity exerted a strong influence in the creation of universal values in the light of which the sociopolitical reality was shaped, in Japan, Buddhism―the dominant religion throughout the feudal period―was never able to attain such hegemony and offer normative and universal values for the political and social order. In Japan the supreme value to which everything should be subjected is the political and social order of the nation. To be a faithful member of the social collectivity and contribute to the preservation of its harmony acquires a quasi-sacred value. Here resides the core essence of the religiosity of the Japanese people, often referred to as Nipponism . It was this cultural and religious matrix of an ethnocentric nature that enabled Japan to adopt many elements of western culture in order to modernize the nation and at the same time maintain its own cultural identity. Key words : Japan, Religion, Culture, Social Collectivity, Nipponism. (shrink)

This article examines different ways agrarian thought has been interpreted and employed by ancient Chinese and early modern Japanese philosophers to criticize and attempt to limit the state’s power, and, in at least one case, to try to strengthen it. It analyzes the manner in which arguably the most fundamental human activities of farming, weaving, and governing have been conceptualized in a normative way, and the extent to which thinkers and statesmen in these East Asian historical contexts debated their correct (...) interrelation. The state’s critics were deeply concerned about the tragic occurrence of death by starvation during their ages, and by the conditions that allowed it to happen. They identified and advocated certain ethical values and political measures they believed would mitigate and help prevent this avoidable circumstance. Conversely, the state’s supporters appropriated agrarian thinking to demonstrate how the sovereign’s control of the realm and its subjects could be significantly enhanced by strategically apportioning the land in a particular way. Lastly, both groups of thinkers sought unity, ethically or geopolitically, but they conceived of this ideal in contrasting ways. (shrink)