DOCSLIB.ORG

The Left in the Shaping of Japanese Democracy

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Left in the Shaping of Japanese Democracy The Left in the Shaping of Japanese Democracy Arthur Stockwin, as much as any Westerner living, made the Japanese Left a compelling concern for the political scientist and historian alike. This Oxford Festschrift seeks to honour him with a set of essays that reach beyond all previous studies of this great movement. Part I focuses on left-wing thought. Christopher Goto-Jones probes the texts and reputations of two-left wing ‘martyrs’ of Imperial Japan: Jun Tosaka and Kiyoshi Miki; Rikki Kersten retraces the career of Hitoshi Asō, the leftist leader who controversially embraced the Army as an agency of anti-capitalist revolution; and David Williams mobilises Hobbes, Carl Schmitt and Foucault to dissect the Left’s understanding of constitutional sovereignty. Part II addresses the post-war scene. Robert Aspinall examines the rise and fall of Nikkyō-sō, the militant teachers’ union; Koichi Nakano reveals the Left’s impact on conservative efforts to privatize the state sector; and Sarah Hyde recounts the strange but sudden death of parliamentary socialism. In Part III, ‘Settling Accounts’, Leonard J.Schoppa highlights the embrace of the free market by former leftist politicians; Williams returns the study of the Japanese Left to its critical roots via a post 9/11 critique of American Empire; and Junji Banno offers a passionate ‘last judgment’ on the fate of the Left in Japanese politics. Rikki Kersten is Professor of Modern Japan Studies at Leiden University, the Netherlands. She is the editor of our Routledge/Leiden Series in Modern East Asian History and Politics. David Williams, one of Europe’s leading thinkers on modern Japan, is the author of Japan: Beyond the End of History, Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science and Defending Japans Pacific War, all published by Routledge. Routledge/Leiden Series in Modern East Asian History and Politics Series editor: Rikki Kersten Through addressing ideas about history and politics in the modern period, and by encouraging comparative and inter-disciplinary work amongst East Asian specialists, the Routledge/Leiden Series in Modern East Asian History and Politics seeks to combine Area Studies’ focus on primary sources in the vernacular, with a distinct disciplinary edge. The Leiden Series focuses on philosophy, politics, political thought, history, the history of ideas, and foreign policy as they relate to modern East Asia, and will emphasise theoretical approaches in all of these fields. As well as single-authored volumes, edited or multi-authored submissions that bring together a range of country specialisations and disciplines are welcome. Political Philosophy in Japan Nishida, the Kyoto school and co-prosperity Christopher S.Go to-Jones The Left in the Shaping of Japanese Democracy Essays in honour of J.A.A.Stockwin Edited by Rikki Kersten and David Williams The Left in the Shaping of Japanese Democracy Essays in honour of J.A.A.Stockwin Edited by Rikki Kersten and David Williams LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/. © 2006 Rikki Kersten and David Williams for selection and editorial matter; individual contributions their contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The left in the shaping of Japanese democracy: essays in honour of J.A.A.Stockwin/edited by Rikki Kersten and David Williams. p. cm.—(The Leiden series in modern East Asian politics and history; 2) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Political culture—Japan. 2. Socialism—Japan. 3. Japan—Politics and government—1945–4. Japan—Foreign relations. I. Stockwin, J.A.A. (James Arthur Ainscow) II. Kersten, Rikki, 1960- III. Williams, David. IV. Title. V. Series. JQ1681.L44 2005 320.51′3′095209045–dc22 2005009856 ISBN 0-203-50506-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10:0-415-33434-9 (hbk) ISBN10:0-415-33435-7 (pbk) ISBN13:9-78-0-415-33434-1 (hbk) ISBN13:9-78-0-415-33435-8 (pbk) Contents List of Contributors vii A tribute to Arthur Stockwin ix RIKKI KERSTEN An Oxford Festschrift: the book in brief xv DAVID WILLIAMS Acknowledgements xix Japanese usage and style xx PART I Left-wing thought from the Russian Revolution to the war on terrorism 1 The Left hand of darkness: forging a political Left in interwar Japan 2 CHRISTOPHER GOTO-JONES 2 Painting the Emperor red: the Emperor and the socialists in the 1930s 18 RIKKI KERSTEN 3 The Japanese evasion of sovereignty: Article 9 and the European canon— 37 Hobbes, Carl Schmitt, Foucault DAVID WILLIAMS PART II The metamorphosis of the Left in postwar Japan 4 The rise and fall of Nikkyōso: classroom idealism, union power and the 57 three phases of Japanese politics since 1955 ROBERT W.ASPINALL 5 ‘Democratic government’ and the Left 72 KOICHI NAKANO 6 The end-game of socialism: from the JSP to the DPJ 86 SARAH HYDE PART III Settling accounts: globalization, American empire and history’s judgement 7 Neoliberal economic policy preferences of the ‘New Left’: home-grown or 103 an Anglo-American import? LEONARD J.SCHOPPA 8 After Abu Ghraib: American empire, the left-wing intellectual and Japan 126 Studies DAVID WILLIAMS 9 The Left in the shaping of Japanese democracy: historical review 146 JUNJI BANNO Index 160 Contributors Christopher Goto-Jones is Associate Professor of the History of Ideas in Modern Japan at Leiden University. Rikki Kersten is Professor of Modern Japan Studies at Leiden University. David Williams is Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies at Cardiff University. Robert W.Aspinall is Professor in the Department of Social Systems, Shiga University. Koichi Nakano is Associate Professor of Political Science at Sophia University. Sarah Hyde is Lecturer in the Politics and International Relations of Japan at the University of Kent. Leonard J.Schoppa is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. Junji Banno is Emeritus Professor at Tokyo University. A tribute to Arthur Stockwin Rikki Kersten Summing up the achievements of one’s professor, mentor and friend seems an incredibly cheeky thing for a student to do. And yet, as most people in Japanese Studies will agree, Arthur Stockwin has made it rather easy. In terms of tangible achievements, publications, the numbers of DPhil and PhD graduates who now work both within and outside academe, teaching and professional administrative roles, even the brute compilation of lists of each of these activities, will testify to his professional contribution to Japanese Studies. The hard thing is to try to convey, to those who have not worked with Arthur during his career, how the breadth of his humanity has made these other achievements resonate in our own professional lives. This is not about being a ‘nice guy’; rather, what Arthur has represented for many of us is a profound intertwining of value integrity with impeccable scholarship. Arthur Stockwin is a scholar who knows where he stands as a human being, and he has built his scholarship and teaching around this, while retaining his empirical, scholarly quality. This is something to which most of us aspire, especially once we have met him and worked with him. To pre-empt the thrust of this assessment of his professional career, this is his lasting contribution to the field. The tangible contributions almost speak for themselves, though they are worth examining, to show what is possible in one professional life. This book began with a different intention, namely to assess the field of Japanese political science, and approaches to the subject, during the course of Arthur’s career. Ultimately, this found expression in one of Arthur’s most recent publications, the Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Japan.1 In the end, persuaded by convincing arguments on the part of my co- editor, I agreed that the thread that really binds Arthur’s academic work is his analysis of and the attention given to the Left in Japanese politics, ideas and foreign policy. A quick glance at the disciplines covered by his graduates underscored the kind of structure that a book in his honour should take. Namely, one of disciplinary breadth, incorporating the history of ideas on the Left, political science and foreign policy. In his scholarly publications and public lectures, Arthur has given depth to each of these areas. Without him, the profile of Japanese politics would be monochromatic indeed, with the spotlight focused on the winners, and our understanding of the full picture considerably impoverished as a result. Power is not contained and constrained by those who formally hold the reins. Understanding politics and political culture demands that we look at the negotiation, compromises and fuzzy edges that accompany power and its exercise, and in Japan this means we must look at the Left as a central player in the power game of Japanese politics. Through his life-long dedication to this subject, Arthur has helped us understand Japanese politics as a whole, not just one heroic corner of it.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Hitomi Koyama
    JAPAN’S HISTORY PROBLEM: AGENCY, VIOLENCE, AND THE LIMITS OF DECOLONIZING HISTORY by Hitomi Koyama A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Baltimore, Maryland October 2015 © 2015 Hitomi Koyama All Rights Reserved Abstract If history-writing and modern forms of colonialism have been complicit with one another, how can we decolonize history-writing? The public appearance of former “comfort” women in 1992 and their demand for apology and acknowledgment have ushered in a new level of urgency in thinking through the relationship between history-writing and decolonization in post-Cold War Japan. Postcolonial critics of history-writing’s relationship to a Eurocentric world order elucidate how history-writing can exclude and thus marginalize and silence the non-European Other. If history-writing, or what Chakrabarty calls historicism, pertains solely to denial of one’s agency, then the antidote would be to assert one’s agency against such denial as a form of resistance. Still, examining modern Japan’s engagement with Western history- writing and its aftermath since 1945, where contentions over proper modes of history- writing persist as a “history problem (rekishi mondai)” between the former empire and its victim states, elucidates the need to rethink the potential and limits of decolonizing history. Through discourse analysis of writings by Yukichi Fukuzawa, Ukichi Taguchi, Kiyoshi Miki, and Norihiro Kato, I identify that historicism as a historiographical concept embodies at least two versions and thus implications. The first is a historicism which denies the agency of those who are deemed as being “backward” in relation to linear progressive history; the second is historicism which affirms agency, individuality, and particularity against Western claims to universality.
    [Show full text]
  • Japanese Studies Review, Vol. IX (2005), Pp
    ISSN: 1500-0713 ______________________________________________________________ Filial Piety: Practice and Discourse in Contemporary East Asia Reviewed by: Leslie Williams Geisha, Harlot, Strangler, Star: A Woman, Sex, and Morality in Modern Japan Reviewed by: Jan Bardsley Philosophers of Nothingness: An Essay on the Kyoto School Reviewed by: Gereon Kopf Source: Japanese Studies Review, Vol. IX (2005), pp. 135-147 Stable URL: https://asian.fiu.edu/projects-and-grants/ japan-studies-review/journal-archive/volume-ix-2005/book- reviews.pdf BOOK REVIEWS Charlotte Ikels, ed., Filial Piety: Practice and Discourse in Contemporary East Asia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004. 320 pp. ISBN: 0-804-74790-3 (hbk), $60. Reviewed by Leslie Williams In East Asia, Confucian philosophy so pervasively structures interpersonal relations that its influence can easily be taken for granted. In the classroom, social dynamics in China, Korea, and Japan cannot be effectively addressed without introducing the Five Relationships that have grounded all proper interaction in East Asian societies. Bright students are often curious about the realities of the present, but Confucian thought belongs to the realm of tradition. The task of reconciling traditional forms and present-day behavior has been made a great deal easier thanks to this new publication. This edited volume provides candid and unflinching perspectives on contemporary practices of filial piety in mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. Frankly, behavior is not what it used to be, vis-à-vis ideal Confucian standards. The ideal stem or extended family residence in which parents live with at least one married child is still routinely found, most notably in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan.
    [Show full text]
  • Historicism, Coloniality, and Culture in Wartime Japan Hitomi Koyama
    Contexto Internacional vol. 38(3) Sep/Dec 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0102-8529.2016380300003 Historicism, Coloniality, and Culture in Wartime Japan Hitomi Koyama Hitomi Koyama* Abstract: Historicism has shaped global politics by projecting multiple images of development. Spe- cifically, it has served to legitimise Western forms of hegemony by naturalising the schema of ‘First in the West, then in the Rest,’ thereby damning non-Western Others to the ‘waiting room’ of history (Chakrabarty 2000). In this light, decolonising international relations must likewise complement efforts to decolonise the stagist views of historicism implicit in civilisational history. However, this focus on stagism neglects the ways in which historicism has also been employed to assert non- Western agencies in the name of culture, and to legitimise colonialism, as it was in the case of Japan. The case of Japan thus raises the question of whether limiting the critique of historicism to that of being a stagist civilisational discourse is sufficient or not. This article argues that there are not just one but two problems with historicism in international relations: first, that the stagist view of history legitimises the civilising mission; and second, that the romantic turn to culture as a means of resist- ing Eurocentric history may actually underwrite a colonialist discourse as well. If this is correct, the debate on historicism must not only engage with the concept of civilisation, but also with the concept of culture as a site through which sovereignty is projected. Keywords: Colonialism; Japanese History Problem; Provincialising Europe; Culture; Historicism. In Japan, as in other postcolonial contexts, the coloniality of history-writing persists.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pitfalls in the Project of Overcoming Western Modernity Rethinking the Lineage of Japanese Historical Revisionism Hiroyuki Tosa
    Chapter 9 The Pitfalls in the Project of Overcoming Western Modernity Rethinking the Lineage of Japanese Historical Revisionism Hiroyuki Tosa In 1995, on the fiftieth anniversary celebrating the end of the Asia-Pacific War, Japan’s prime minister Tomiichi Murayama stated, during a certain period in the not-too-distant past, Japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused enormous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly those of Asia. In the hope that no such mistake will be made in the future, I regard, in the spirit of humanity, these irrefutable facts of history, and express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology. (Okuno and Dore 1995) That same year, Seisuke Okuno, a right-wing politician of the Liberal Demo- cratic Party of Japan (LDP), gave a different account saying, at the time of the birth of the state of Manchukuo, there was a slogan such as “Five Races under One Union (gozoku kyōwa).” [These races were] Japanese, Korean, Manchurian, Chinese, and Mongolian. These five races lived together. Later we rushed into the war with the US. Then I thought that we would con- struct the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. It was for the stability of Asia. We had to liberate Asians from the white colonial rule. It [regionalism] also became our slogan. Although we were defeated (in the war), all Asian countries were liberated. (Okuno and Dore 1995) The latter is an example of “reckless remarks” that have been harshly criti- cized by neighboring Asian countries. Okuno and other conservative politi- cians, including Shinzō Abe and Tarō Asō (both became prime ministers), 167 Rosch & Watanabe_9781786603678.indb 167 28-05-2018 15:14:03 168 Hiroyuki Tosa gave similar accounts in order to “rectify” the “masochistic view of history (jigyaku shikan)” that they found in speeches like Murayama’s.
    [Show full text]
  • Die Philosophie Der Kyôto-Schule Texte Und Einführung
    Welten A der Philosophie 2 Ryôsuke Ohashi (Hg.) Die Philosophie der Kyôto-Schule Texte und Einführung www.verlag-alber.de Ohashi · Die Philosophie der Kyôto-Schule VERLAG KARL ALBER B Die Philosophie der Kyôto-Schule VERLAG KARL ALBER A Welten der Philosophie 2 Wissenschaftlicher Beirat: Claudia Bickmann, Rolf Elberfeld, Geert Hendrich, Heinz Kimmerle, Kai Kresse, Ram Adhar Mall, Hans-Georg Moeller, Ryôsuke Ohashi, Heiner Roetz, Ulrich Rudolph, Hans Rainer Sepp, Georg Stenger, Franz Martin Wimmer, Günter Wohlfart, Ichirô Yamaguchi Die Philosophie der Kyôto-Schule Zweite, erweiterte und mit einer neuen Einführung versehene Auflage Texte von Kitarô Nishida · Hajime Tanabe · Shin-ichi Hisamatsu · Keiji Nishitani Iwao Kôyama · Masaaki Kôsaka · Toratarô Shimomura · Shigetaka Suzuki Yoshinori Takeuchi · Kôichi Tsujimura Shizuteru Ueda Herausgegeben und eingeleitet von Ryôsuke Ohashi Verlag Karl Alber Freiburg/München Dritte Auflage 2014 © VERLAG KARL ALBER in der Verlag Herder GmbH, Freiburg im Breisgau 2011 Alle Rechte vorbehalten www.verlag-alber.de Satz und PDF-E-Book: SatzWeise GmbH, Trier ISBN (Buch) 978-3-495-48316-9 ISBN (PDF-E-Book) 978-3-495-86093-9 源 窮 水 不 窮 戊 辰 仲 夏 寸 心 Die Quelle läßt sich erschöpfen – ihr Wasser aber nie. Im Hochsommer 1928 Sunshin Die Kalligraphie von Kitarô Nishida muß von rechts nach links gelesen werden, die Zeichen in Maschinenschrift dagegen sind von links nach rechts geordnet. Sunshin, der Name Nishidas als Laienschüler im Zen, bedeutet: Kleines (sun) Herz (shin). In zen-buddhistischen Wendungen ist das Kleine oft das, was nicht bloß im Gegensatz zum Großen steht, sondern gerade dieses Große in sich birgt. Als Beispiel hierfür könnte man das Gedicht Shin-ichi Hisamatsus (vgl.
    [Show full text]
  • Re-Examining Japanese Wartime Intellectuals: Kiyoshi Miki During the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines
    7 Re-Examining Japanese Wartime Intellectuals: Kiyoshi Miki during the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines Gonzalo CAMPOAMOR II Associate Professor, Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature University of the Philippines Diliman Abstract This paper analyzes the specific writings of Kiyoshi Miki, one of Japan’s most celebrated philosophers, who wrote about Filipino society as a member of the 14th Army Propaganda Corps in the Philippines. It sheds light on how the subject of the Filipino Oriental Character became a centerpiece of these writings. In doing so, the paper rethinks other aspects of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, and reexamines the role of Japanese intellectuals during the war. Miki had an ambivalent place in wartime cultural and economic policy; on the one hand, he was part of the propaganda machinery of Japanese imperialism and on the other, a bona fide intellectual who wrote passionately about Philippine society and incurred the ire of the Japanese imperial bureaucracy. Keywords: Kiyoshi Miki, Second World War, Filipino Oriental character, intellectual history, wartime intellectuals Volume 53:1 1 (2017) 82 G. CAMPOAMOR II PPPan-Asianism, Wararar, and Japanese Intellectuals The daitoa kyoeiken1 ‘greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere’ (hereon, GEACPS) is often perceived as Japan’s ideological justification for the invasion of countries like the Philippines.2 Indeed, the Japanese military constantly deployed the idea of a regional order composed of Asian nations throughout the fifteen-year war (1931–1945), which encompassed the Mukden Incident, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Pacific War. During the Pacific War (1941–1945), the promotion of the GEACPS was consistent with Japanese propaganda in all of Japan’s occupied territories.
    [Show full text]
  • Everyday Fascism in Contemporary Japan Etsko Kasai
    Everyday Fascism in Contemporary Japan Etsko Kasai Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Columbia University 2013 ©2013 Etsko Kasai All rights reserved Abstract Everyday Fascism in Contemporary Japan Etsko Kasai This dissertation uses the concept of fascism in order to examine the socio-culture of contemporary Japan. Defined in terms of its commodity structure, fascism turns out to be a relevant concept to Japan not only prior to and during the Asia-Pacific War (1931-1945) but also from the postwar days to date. Against various forms of culturalism that claim that the country is essentially totalitarian and its culture is innately violent, I will argue that the country has shared fascist conditions with those other countries and regions that operate in the mode of mechanical reproduction. While the overall mode of mass-reproduction has been further articulated by different moments, such as late capitalism or post-modernism, the cultural and political condition of reducing singular lives and events into standardized forms has continued in these countries and regions roughly since the 1920s. My view will expand the horizon of studies of fascism, which has hitherto been limited to Europe between the two World Wars. At the same time, the view of fascism’s generality should not be blind to local inflections and historical specificities. In this dissertation, I will examine such trans-war Japanese institutions as the ideologies of emperorship, formation of the petty bourgeois class, and corporatist organizations of gender and locality.
    [Show full text]
  • On Shinzō Abe's Educational Reforms
    On Shinzō Abe’s Educational Reforms: Remolding Ideal Human Beings in the Age of Empire by Joseph L. Clark B.A., University of Victoria, 2013 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of Pacific and Asian Studies © Joseph L. Clark, 2018 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii On Shinzō Abe’s Educational Reforms; Remolding Ideal Human Beings in the Age of Empire by Joseph L. Clark B.A., University of Victoria, 2013 Supervisory Committee Dr. Katsuhiko Endo, Supervisor Department of Pacific and Asian Studies Dr. Hiroko Noro, Departmental Member Department of Pacific and Asian Studies iii ABSTRACT This study examines educational reform in Japan since 2006, when the first Abe administration added objectives to increase “love for the country” and “respect for tradition and culture” into Japan’s central edict on education. The Japanese education system has since been internationally criticized by academics and journalists as furthering a neonationalist revisionist history movement, but the initiative to remove ‘masochistic views’ of history from education is only one aspect of the reforms. This thesis argues that Prime Minister Abe’s educational reforms attempt to meet related demands coming from both the global and domestic environments. In fact, a close examination of Japanese educational reforms since the 2006 Basic Act reveals a strategic response to the new technologies and changing security environment of the Information Age, as well as an effort to make students think of themselves as members of a national community.
    [Show full text]
  • Tanabe's Philosophy in the Comparative Contexts
    464 TANABE’S PHILOSOPHY IN THE COMPARATIVE CONTEXTS Makoto OZAKI1 ABSTRACT. As Hegel suggests, there is no philosophy apart from the history of philosophy. Each philosophy represents the spirit peculiar to its own period. Heidegger, too, holds that every philosophy is the sound of Being, and the history of philosophy is the history of Being. This is true for the Kyoto School philosophy of modern Japan represented by Kitaro Nishida, Hajime Tanabe, and Tetsuro Watsuji, who made to endeavor to construct a new synthesis of Western and Eastern philosophy in the critical, confrontational, and creative ways in the given historical contexts. In particular, Tanabe (1885-1962) attempts at the dialectical unification of Christianity and Buddhism in the last resort from the standpoint of Absolute Nothingness. As, in Whitehead’s conception of Process, actuality is composed of the past objective being as the given data and the present subjective act of becoming, so it might be highly significant to analyze the constitutive elements of Tanabe’s system of thought from the historical and comparative contexts. KEYWORDS: Confucianism, change, Upanishad, dialectic, negative conversion, Absolute Nothingness, the state, the species Contents 1. Confucian Influence 2. Nishida’s Background 2.1. Indian Influence 3. Heidegger on Beginning 3.1. Watsuji on Negativity 4. Whitehead on Experience 5. Tendai on Badness and Evil 6. Buddha and Christ 7. Eternity and Time 8. Hegel’s Dialectic 9. The State Existence 10. Synthesis 11. Actuality and Original Enlightenment 1 Sanyo Gakuen University, Okayama, JAPAN. Vol.3, No.3, BIOCOSMOLOGY – NEO-ARISTOTELISM Summer 2013 465 1. Confucian Influence Tanabe does not presuppose any pre-existent entity such as God or the Eternal Ideas prior to the actual world.
    [Show full text]
  • Is Western Marxism Western? the Cases of Gramsci and Tosaka* ______
    Journal of World Philosophies Articles/28 Is Western Marxism Western? The Cases of Gramsci and Tosaka* ______________________________________ TAKAHIRO CHINO Waseda University, Japan ([email protected]) 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. Keywords: Marxist Philosophy; Western Marxism; Antonio Gramsci; Tosaka Jun; Global Intellectual History 1 Introduction This article shows that two eminent Marxists in the 1930s, the Italian Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937), and the Japanese Tosaka Jun (1900–1945)1, have provided considerably similar theories, which we acknowledge as those of Western Marxism in terms of its three key features: the methodological development of Marxism, the focus on the superstructure, and political pessimism about the possibility of future revolution. The case of Tosaka exemplifies that these key features of Western Marxism can also be found in geographically non-Western Marxists of the same era, irrespective of mutual contact, enabling us to revisit the commonly accepted framework of Western Marxism, which—confusingly—entails both theoretical characteristics and geographical criteria.
    [Show full text]
  • Nishida's Universalism and Postcolonial Critique
    The Review of Politics 59:3, Summer 97, pp. 541-560 Reprinted in Border Crossings: Toward a Comparative Political Theory. Fred Dallmayr, ed. Lexington Books Lanham: 1999. pp. 236-252 Beyond “East and West”: Nishida’s Universalism and Postcolonial Critique Yoko Arisaka Philosophy Department University of San Francisco San Francisco, CA 94117 U.S.A. [email protected] Abstract During the 1930s and 1940s, many Japanese intellectuals resisted Western cultural imperialism. This theoretical movement was unfortunately complicit with wartime nationalism. Kitaro Nishida, the founder of modern Japanese philosophy and the leading figure of the Kyoto School, has been the focus of a controversy as to whether his philosophy was inherently nationalist or not. Nishida’s defenders claim that his philosophical “universalism” was incompatible with the particularistic nationalism of Japan’s imperialist state. From the standpoint of postcolonial critique, I argue that this defense is insufficient. Philosophical universalism is not in itself anti-imperialist, but can in fact contribute to imperialist ideology. Beyond “East and West”: Nishida’s Universalism and Postcolonial Critique 1. Eurocentrism and Japanese Philosophy For a century, Asian intellectual and cultural life has been inordinately preoccupied with the meanings and implications of “Westernization” and “modernization.” Japan sidestepped this problem during its long years of isolation,1 but finally in 1853 Commodore Perry and his cannon-wielding “black ships” came to the shores of Yokohama and demanded the opening of the country. At that point the country faced two alternatives--either become a victim of Western expansionism, or modernize in order to protect itself. Japan chose the latter path, and with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, it inaugurated an era of daunting modernization in all aspects of life--social, intellectual, technological, political, economic, religious, aesthetic, and of course, in popular culture.
    [Show full text]
  • V Verifiche «VERIIFICHE» ISSN 0391-4186 Hegel Verifiche And/In/On Translation Rivista Semestrale Di Scienze Umane Edited by Saša Hrnjez and Elena Nardelli
    v verifiche «VERIIFICHE» ISSN 0391-4186 Hegel verifiche and/in/on Translation rivista semestrale di scienze umane Edited by Saša Hrnjez and Elena Nardelli Veri"che. Associazione di Studi "loso"ci Sede Operativa e redazione: via Giorgio Schiavone, 1 - 35134 Padova M. Capasso, G. di Giovanni, F. Duque, A. Esposito, Direttore responsabile: Antonella Benanzato G. Faraklas, G. Garelli, P. Giuspoli, F. Iannelli, Z. Kobe, Amministrazione: info@veri"cheonline.net Autorizzazione Tribunale di Padova n. 2445 del 17/09/2017 G. Lejeune, J. Mácha, M. Marder, A.S. Mirza, Poste italiane - Spedizione in Abbonamento Postale A. Nuzzo, A.P. Olivier, F. Orsini, M. Panków, Digitalandcopy sas - Vignate (MI), Via Roma 25 S. Pieroni, E. Renault, A. Takeshima, M. Teixeira Anno XLIX - N. 1-2 Gennaio-Dicembre 2020 www.veri"cheonline.net VERIFICHE 2020 2020 1-2 ANNO XLIX N. 1-2 VPREZZO € 55,00 Verifiche Verifiche Rivista fondata da Franco Chiereghin e Giuliano Rigoni International biannual, peer-reviewed Journal (ISSN: 0391-4186) Direzione/Editors Luca Illetterati (Scientific Coordinator), Paolo Giuspoli (Editorial Coordinator), Francesca AbbonAmento/SubScription price (2020/2021) Menegoni. Italia: privati € 55,00 (sostenitori € 65,00; studenti € 35,00); enti: € 80,00. Europe and Mediterranean Countries: € 75,00 (students: € 55,00); institutional: € 100,00. Redazione/Editorial Staff Other Countries: € 90,00 (students: € 70,00); institutional: € 115,00. Michela Bordignon, Francesco Campana (Editorial Guidelines), Valentina Chizzola, Luca Spese postali incluse/Shipping charges included. Corti (Peer review Editor), Alberto Gaiani, Paolo Livieri, Armando Manchisi, Giovanna Miolli (Web Manager), Antonio Nunziante, Federico Orsini, Giovanni Realdi, Barbara Santini (Reviews and Discussions Editor), Sergio Soresi, Alberto Vanzo.
    [Show full text]