Japan's Future and a New Meiji Transformation

International Reflections

Ken Coates, Kimie Hara, Carin Holroyd, Marie Söderberg

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429615184
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Bringing together the work of sixteen international Japan specialists and scholars, this book analyzes Japan's culture and history to reflect on the critical policy decisions and national commitments required for the country to continue to succeed.

Comparing the current situation with the uncertainties of the late nineteenth century, this book investigates the possibility and desirability of a "New Meiji Transformation" in Japan. Set in the context of perceived demographic, ecological, fiscal and political decline in Japan, it explores what a New Meiji initiative would look like in the twenty-first century and whether a new era of renewal is needed to maintain and improve quality of life.

An interdisciplinary volume, this book covers contemporary issues in Japanese foreign, defense and nuclear strategies, as well as its aging population, higher education structure and environmental policies. As such Japan's Future and a New Meiji Transformation will be of great interest to students and scholars of Japanese politics, economics and history, as well as Asian Studies more generally.

1 Introduction

Japan’s future and a New Meiji transformation—international reflections

Ken Coates, Kimie Hara, Carin Holroyd and Marie Söderberg

International observers of Japan’s struggles and achievements in the post-Bubble era alternatively marvel at the country’s resilience and wonder about its ability to find its feet in an era of unrelenting socio-economic change and technological transformation. In December 2016, an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars gathered in Narita, Japan, to address a simple question: does the twenty-first century need a re-imagining and reconfiguration of the country on the scale and with the intensity of the late nineteenth-century Meiji Restoration. In an introduction to the collection of essays, this chapter reflects on the nature of contemporary challenges facing Japan, contemplates the earlier lessons from Meiji and argues that there will be no clear or simple path forward for the country, due both to the strengths and weaknesses of Japan and the complexities and diverse changes of the contemporary world.

In the late nineteenth century, Japan faced an uncertain future. Engagement with the West, rapid economic transition, the introduction of new technologies, and widespread social evolution presented the country with both wide-open opportunities for global engagement and the prospect of political crisis and societal dislocation at home. Led by a remarkable group of commercial, political and social leaders, embodied in the careers of entrepreneurs like Eiichi Shibusawa, Japan capitalized on the possibilities, avoided many of the problems, and emerged within two generations from global obscurity to take a leading position in the world community.

The Meiji Ishin (Restoration/Revolution) is a staple in Japanese scholarship. A cursory search for academic articles, theses and books on the Meiji era produces literally hundreds of items, on topics ranging from Japan’s international relations, entrepreneurship and infrastructure development to studies of both Japanese masculinities and women’s issues, political structures and the westernization of the Japanese military (Duus 1974; Gayle 2014; Jingwei 2009; Kelley and Williamson 1971; Mehl 1998). This era laid the foundations for Japan’s remarkable economic surge in the late nineteenth century and saw the country’s political, educational, social and cultural transformation, with the rejigging of Japanese education based on international models perhaps foremost among them. Scholars look at the personalities, policies and socio-economic processes of the Meiji era for the foundations of modern Japan. International scholars, in particular, have been drawn by the country’s rapid and remarkable transition, which stood in stark contrast to the processes of Asian colonization by the West and which spurred a rapid expansion in material well-being, educational attainment, democratization, and commercial innovation (Gordon 2003; Hall 1988; Henshall 2004; Mason and Caiger 2011; Totman 2014). This era saw the complete transformation of the country, including the expansion of the Japanese empire across Asia and the country’s near-permanent wartime footing from the 1890s to 1945.

The transitions of the Meiji era puzzled and astonished outsiders, most of whom were captured by western assumptions about the Orient and long-standing images of Japanese exoticism. To foreigners, Meiji broke the hold of history on the Japanese, liberating the country’s residents to copy western lifestyles, values and policy approaches—or so outsiders believed. Few countries have voluntarily undertaken such dramatic changes or have been so successful in making a sustained adaption to new global realities. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that scholars have devoted so much effort to explaining and understanding the Meiji era. Meiji stood—and stands—as a symbol of Japan’s inherent flexibility and ability as a nation to adjust to international pressures and capitalize on opportunities.

Despite the large scale scholarly effort, the meaning and processes of Meiji remain elusive. Meiji was many things, but it was not a formal and well-formulated set of government policies. There were many policy elements and social forces—industrial policy, major investments in infrastructure, the internationalization of national education, extensive engagement with the world’s leading universities, the modernization of the military, new forms of entrepreneurship and corporate organization, the intermingling of Japanese values and traditions with western ideas, a remade political and democratic system, among others—but the Imperial government’s approach to the reformatting of the economy and society was not carefully orchestrated or planned. The country showed more responsiveness than foresight, greater capacity to adapt than to anticipate. Over a few decades, the government and the private sector launched a wide variety of initiatives designed to capitalize on Japanese determination to compete with the West and on rapidly changing global conditions.

Meiji was a point in time, a unique geopolitical circumstance that coincided with the liberalization of Japanese society, rapid technological change, and western access to the country. The Meiji Imperial Government played a major role in guiding and supporting change. But the fact that Meiji was a transformational success left the impression that the outcome was the result of carefully implemented government strategies. Rapid change in Japan was more about Japan’s trajectory and responsiveness to circumstances than about a carefully structured and coordinated set of policies and government investments. As the country looks to the Meiji era for lessons and insights, there is a tendency to see more form, intentionality and planning than existed at the time. If Meiji has become a symbol of Japan’s innovation and transformational potential, it is a flawed or incomplete representation of the forces at play in the Meiji era. There were, clearly, certain economic drivers in play at the time, related to the rapid expansion of industrialization and growing engagement in the world, that, much like the forces that reshaped the global economy after World War II and that underpinned Japan’s success at that time, propelled the country into international prominence and encouraged them to reproduce the European and American models of developing an empire of considerable size and wealth.

The Meiji Ishin transformed Japan in ways that shocked the international community and built enormous confidence across Japan. The country managed, by focusing its remarkable collective energy and determination on the prospects of modernization, to capitalize on real opportunities, overcome formidable barriers, and adjust to emerging global realities. It did so in part through a willingness to learn from other countries, embracing or adapting policies as necessary to fit the Japanese context. There is a sense that Japan requires a comparable transformation to better align its administration, economy, and society with twenty-first-century circumstances. Developing a “New Meiji” strategy, one that respects Japanese culture, history and values, and that capitalizes on national strengths and global opportunities, may hold great importance for a country that realizes it must adjust to changing circumstances.

As we ask a simple question—“Does Japan need a New Meiji to respond to the rapid changes underway in the world?”—we are not for a second anticipating a simple answer. Nor, it must be highlighted, do we believe that a “New Meiji,” should one emerge, would be dominated by the government or encapsulated in a small set of government policies and investments. If the original Meiji Ishin, as argued above, was a complex series of public and private sector responses to global transitions, so the “New Meiji” would likely be similar in character. To approximate the Meiji experience, Japan’s new approach would include a strong government response to changing economic realities, substantial internal change, including the abandonment of long-standing traditions and established policy, a shared national commitment to a fundamental transition, and an appreciation of the technological opportunities and challenges.

The second decade of the twenty-first century presents Japan—now uniformly accepted as one of the world’s great national economies—with comparable problems to the late nineteenth century. Years of deflation and stagnant economic growth have combined with the rise of China’s economic power, the disruptive impact of Trump-led America-First-ism and unilateralism of the United States, the declining birthrate and aging of Japan’s population, and subsequent demographic decline, remarkable technological change, and worrisome environmental challenges to pose serious questions for government, business and Japanese citizens at large. Naysayers argue that Japan’s sun has set and that the country’s “golden age” is behind it. Others, fewer in number it must be said, have confidence in Japan’s ability to rebound and to demonstrate the resilience and collective effort that have characterized the country over the past 150 years. Regardless of one’s perspective, all agree that Japan faces major choices in the coming years and will have to make critical policy decisions and national commitments if the country wishes to continue to succeed.

The situation in the early twenty-first century is markedly different from the late nineteenth century. The world’s attention is now on China and, to a lesser extent, the emergence of a more economically united counter alliance of the USA, India, Australia and Japan. While Japan’s economic, commercial and technical importance and leadership are widely recognized, the prevailing view appears to be that demographic, ecological, fiscal and political problems have ushered in an era of Japanese decline. Within Japan, concern about environmental and energy issues, sustained government debt, the costs and complication of an aging and declining population, and the rapid decline of rural and small-town areas and peripheral regions have re-enforced decline-ism and added to national disillusionment with the country’s medium and long-term prospects. There is a widespread sentiment that major steps are needed—and no consensus about what can and should be done.

To the extent that a “New Meiji” restoration is desirable or appropriate, it must be adapted to twenty-first-century realities. A New Meiji initiative would not be a fixed and limited set of government policies. Rather it would be a mobilization of Japan for the re-creation of the country to suit emerging circumstances. This would require a groundswell of public and corporate awareness and a commitment to responding constructively and aggressively to a rapidly changing global environment.

The consensus that emerges from these papers can be summarized succinctly. First, there is a growing understanding of specific challenges and, to a lesser extent, opportunities. Second, Japanese people are concerned about the culture of declinism and are looking to Prime Minister Abe, the Liberal Democratic Party, and new government, and business collaborations to put the country on a new course. Third, there is at present little linkage between the specific problems and opportunities, beyond a general sense that change is occurring. And, fourth, the contours of a “New Meiji” are no clearer to the people of Japan at the end of the 2010s than they were to the country in the 1870s and 1880s. In other words, the first Meiji and any “New Meiji” approach would be about trajectory and an openness to systematic transformation much more than any specific initiatives, policies or end goals.

The scholars involved in this project, including the editors and the chapter contributors, do not interpret Japan’s current situation in the same way and, logically, do not offer a common strategy for government policy or for the country as a whole. The contributors come to the “New Meiji” initiative from a variety of disciplines, national backgrounds, and understandings of Japan. We are united primarily in our sense that Japan faces a number of significant challenges and must develop practical policy responses and, in some instances, must mobilize the country to tackle emerging problems. The contributors to this book have all been asked to focus on a single issue or policy challenge. They do not address directly the question of the need for a “New Meiji,” although we believe that the collection as a whole re-enforces the idea that the collective challenges facing Japan are formidable and require a comprehensive government and national strategy and commitment. These are, the contributors agree, difficult times, presenting governments, businesses and the citizenry at large with major policy and investment decisions. In the Meiji era, led by aggressive and globally-aware leaders, Japan made the necessary commitment to national renewal and made the decisions needed to put the country on a new, sustainable and competitive path. The same energy, achievement and confidence, it must be remembered, also established a multi-generational militarism and international aggression that led to the excesses of empire and the catastrophic World War II. The over-riding questions in this collection are:

• Is there a need for a “New Meiji”? Does Japan need to launch an era of renewal in order to position itself to maintain or improve on the quality of life in the country?

• What would Japan’s “New Meiji” look like at the level of policy, administration and business development? What options and decisions are available for the government of Japan, Japanese business and Japanese citizens as they seek to tackle the challenges or opportunities for the twenty-first century?

• What are the chances for Japan’s success as it seeks national renewal and economic sustainability? Will the strategies first attempted during the Meiji Revolution work in the twenty-first century?

• Meiji Japan’s obvious achievements included a fair amount of military adventurism and experiments with empire that produced short-term victories and long-term negative consequences. Even though they achieved a mix of successes and failures, the Japanese sought to establish an international presence and they did so with remarkable confidence and impact. In the contemporary era, Japan’s potential “New Meiji” holds little prospect of aggressive territorial expansionism but does carry the requirement for a creative re-imagining of the country’s international strategies in a era of international reconfiguration.

In the end, this collection makes the case that Japan needs to face up to its collective and comprehensive challenges, several of which have the potential to cripple the country, some that could force a substantial rethinking of core aspects of Japanese society, and some of which might provide Japan with the tools needed to revitalize and re-empower the country in the face of massive global change. But the individual chapters also make it clear that there is no obvious solution, the country likely has to shift away from some cherished national values in order to be more effective and efficient, and that the cumulative cost and effort needed to make effective changes might well be beyond Japan’s current capacity. In the end, the collection opens up a troubling and difficult question: If not a “New Meiji,” then what?

The Japan Futures Initiative (JFI) in Canada and the Europe-Japan Advanced Research Network (EJARN) in Europe are both devoted to the understanding of Japan’s contemporary challenges and to the development of policy and programmatic solutions designed to respond to opportunities and overcome problems. On December 11–12, 2016, Japan’s Future: International Reflections on the Prospects for a “New Meiji” Transformation, the first joint conference between JFI and EJARN, was held in Narita, Japan. The organizational goal was to promote and strengthen intellectual exchanges and dialogues. Bringing Canadian and European scholars together with Japanese academics and thought leaders, the “New Meiji” project also aimed to bring international, disciplinary and academic perspectives to bear on the contemplation of Japan’s future possibilities. The conference generated frank discussion about Japan’s immediate and medium-term challenges and opportunities. Including key thought leaders and academics in the discussions deepened the analysis and provided for an inclusive and creative flow of ideas about the prospects for Japan’s “New Meiji” transformation.

This volume includes the revised conference papers, covering a wide range of topics and different perspectives on Japan’s challenges and opportunities. The authors of this volume do not share a single view concerning Japan’s future. This was reflected in the lively and stimulating exchanges at the conference among the participants, who came from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Hungary, Germany, the U.K., the United States, Japan, and Canada, and in the chapters included in this volume. What contributors do share is a commitment to understanding Japan’s contemporary challenges and to developing sound policies and programmatic solutions to respond to opportunities and overcome problems.

References

Duus, Peter. (1974) Whig history, Japanese style: The Min’yūsha historians and the Meiji restoration. The Journal of Asian Studies. 33(3). pp. 415–436.

Gayle, Curtis Anderson. (2014) The world of modern Japanese historiography. In Duara, Prasenjit, Murthy, Viren and Sartori, Andrew. (eds.). A Companion to Global Historical Thought. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. pp. 213–227.

Gordon, Andrew. (2003) A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hall, John Whitney (ed.). (1988) The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. 5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Henshall, Kenneth G. (2004) History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kelley, Allen C. and Williamson, Jeffrey G. (1971) Writing history backwards: Meiji Japan revisited. The Journal of Economic History. 31(4). pp. 729–776.

Mason, R. H. P. and Caiger, J. G. (2011) History of Japan: ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction: Japan’s future and a New Meiji transformation—international reflections
• PART I: Japan in a changing world: security, economics and politics
• PART II: Is there a Meiji model for twenty-first century Japan?
• PART III: Japan’s strengths and challenges: a foundation for re-innovation?
• Index