Japan in Transformation, 1945–2020

Jeff Kingston

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780429767364
• Edition: 3
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Japanese History
• Index: History

Japan in Transformation, 1945 – 2020 has been newly revised and updated to examine the 3.11 natural and nuclear disasters, Emperor Akihito's abdication, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's legacies, the 2019 World Cup and the postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to COVID-19.

Through a chronological approach, this volume traces the development of Japan's history from the US Occupation in 1945 to the political consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. It evaluates the impact of the Lost Decade of the 1990s as well as key issues such as the demographic crisis, war memory, regional relations, security concerns, constitutional revision and political stagnation. In response to post-2010 developments such as Abenomics, the demise of the Democratic Party of Japan and immigration policy, chapters have been reassessed to account for changes in politics, the role of women, Japan's relationships with Asia and how and why policies have fallen short of stated goals. Overall, the volume reveals how Japan transformed into one of the largest economic and technological powers of the modern world.

With a Chronology, Who's who and Glossary, this edition is the ideal resource for all students interested in Japanese politics, economy and society since the end of World War II.

1 Introduction

DOI: 10.4324/9780429428562-1

This book provides an overview of Japan from the end of World War II in 1945 until 2020, a period of tumultuous change that has transformed the way Japanese view their world and act in it. This transformation has been driven and reinforced by institutional changes, rapid economic development, political ferment and the dynamic tension between prevailing norms and shifting realities. Transformation has been experienced, rejected, embraced and reviled, leaving no corner of the archipelago, nor any sector in society, unaffected. This does not mean that there are not substantial elements of continuity; change is incremental, cumulative and includes considerable overlap between old and new. The past continues to resonate powerfully in the present and old verities linger, influencing attitudes, inclinations and patterns of behavior. And yet, the past and these verities are fading.

The period covered in this book has been a time when Japan was reinventing itself and trying to overcome the horrors of war that it suffered while doing little until the 1990s to acknowledge or address the devastation it inflicted across Asia. For much of this period, GNPism was the driving force of Japan’s revival, nurturing a collective identity based on economic growth. Overcoming the devastation of war provided a singularity of purpose and shared goal as Japan sought to regain a place in the community of nations. A people who had collectively peered into the abyss was haunted by wartime privations and sought security above all in rebuilding a robust economy and embracing peaceful means to attaining desired ends. The relatively egalitarian distribution of the fruits of growth strengthened social cohesion in a society where collective values remain resilient. Stable employment provided a sense of security, nurturing loyalty and a work-centered identity.

Students of history can learn much from examining and comparing the intended and unintended consequences of choices and policies made by people and how these are affected by the given institutional arrangements, and political and economic conditions. It is important to analyze not only what happened, but also to grasp what did not happen and why. Historians are acutely aware that History with a capital H does not exist. Those who chronicle and interpret the past are all guilty of selectivity in what they focus on and what they push to the side. Omissions, emphasis and interpretations reflect an inherent subjectivity. This is why it is essential to engage and question the material presented, reading between the lines and in the margins, and considering the sources used, ignored and bear in mind the voiceless and forgotten. As Graham Swift points out, history “is that impossible thing: the attempt to give an account, with incomplete knowledge, of actions themselves undertaken with incomplete knowledge” (Waterland (London: Picador), 1992: 93–4 [originally published in 1983]).

Why is history important? Cicero perhaps best summed it up by suggesting, “Not to know what happened before you were born is always to remain a child.” At a minimum, history is the basis for being an informed and judicious observer of the world in which one lives.

Understanding contemporary Japan is important for everyone because of its global reach and the closer and sustained interactions between countries and people that characterize the world in the 21st century. It is a leading nation economically, technologically, strategically and in terms of its cultural influence. Explaining Japan is especially difficult because perhaps more than with other countries, knowledge of Japan too often relies on, and remains blinkered by, misleading stereotypes. There is a rich history of orientalism among foreign observers that has fostered a tendency to focus on what is exotic, mysterious, surreal or odd. Images of Japan around the world frequently remain fixed in time and it is not rare to see magazine cover stories on modern Japan depicting a geisha, a sumo wrestler, a samurai, Mount Fuji or a militaristic rising-sun flag. These iconic expressions of Japan have become familiar by repetition, but they tend to obscure and ignore how much change has occurred in modern Japan. For example, one frequently hears how conformist the Japanese are, but one needs to question such trite characterizations. As elsewhere, many Japanese are conformist and individuals often defer to group pressure, but conformity is not unique to Japan and group or peer pressure is powerful in most societies. One also needs to distinguish between public behavior (tatemae) and private feelings and attitudes (honne). For many Japanese, tatemae is essentially common sense, doing what is proper and expected, but this should not be confused with honne. Here too, Japanese behaviour differs little from people elsewhere who also do what is expected of them in public. Paradoxically, it is possible for Japanese to express their individuality and assert themselves within their conformity. If one plays by the rules sufficiently, one can get away with quite a bit of individualism.

Similarly, the tired trope about Japanese being excessively deferential to authority is misleading and overlooks significant changes in public attitudes and the relationship between citizens and the state. People are challenging the government and holding it accountable by supporting greater transparency through information disclosure laws, with NPOs often playing a critical role in this process. The media may remain more beholden than is becoming, but it is also feistier in shining a light on unscrupulous practices and keeping people better informed about how government and the private sector are betraying their good faith (Kingston, 2016). The pace and scope of judicial reforms in the 21st century has also been remarkable. Moreover, subjects such as increasing income inequality, domestic violence, political and corporate cover-ups, divorce, cancer, abortion, shotgun marriages, discrimination, unseemly relationships between politicians, the financial sector and yakuza (organized crime), systemic corruption, spreading drug use, suicides, mental depression and dissent within the Imperial family are no longer taboo. In reading Japan, it is essential for the observer to look beyond the first impression, to remain skeptical about what one thinks one knows about it, and always recall that sweeping generalizations are a lazy way out in a diverse and changing nation of 126 million people. This is a dynamic society in flux with a tremendous capacity for change and a sense of urgency about the need to do so that is not always fully reflected in policy outcomes. The tension between what is needed and what is happening is frustrating for many Japanese, but also gives impetus to reform.

The postwar era has been a time of miraculous economic success for Japan and has seen a vast improvement in the lives of most Japanese people. At the time Japan lay in smoldering ruins in 1945, who would have guessed the rapid recovery from war devastation, and the material progress that ensued? Japan certainly has its share of problems, but these do not diminish how much has been accomplished in improving living and working conditions in such a brief period of time. As in other industrialized societies, the costs of progress have been high, taking a toll on the environment, the family and the sense of community. The repercussions of progress have challenged society in many ways and in doing so have stoked a healthy introspection. Over the years, the troubles of society have been the impetus for citizens to challenge the status quo. One of the great changes between Japan in the 1950s and 2010s is the attitudes and values held by growing numbers of citizens who have propelled greater accountability, transparency and myriad other reforms. The radical activism of the 1960s has given way to a more centrist, pragmatic and popular activism, working through the status quo rather than trying to topple it, meaning that change has been gradual and incremental.

Since the oil shocks of the 1970s, there has been more concern about the fragility of what has been achieved and concerns about balancing the need to change in order to survive and the desire to protect those who would be disadvantaged by such changes. The political economy of Japan has thus featured a dynamic tension between the forces of transformation and the beneficiaries of the status quo. Japan’s material success has transformed expectations, aspirations and inclinations that have gradually eroded this Japan, Inc. status quo. There is greater economic, political and cultural space for diversity, and this is having an impact on the pace and nature of transformation. Intensified interaction with the outside world is also reinforcing this trend. Japan is thus becoming a far more complex society with more options and less certainty. This is a troubled time as people try to cope with the destabilizing and disconcerting ramifications of change as it ripples through society. It is also a time when the currents of change are welcomed by those who have been stifled by a relatively rigid system. The system that has brought so much prosperity to so many since World War II is now blamed for many contemporary problems. Despite the emerging consensus favoring a wide-ranging set of reforms to address evident problems, there is much less certainty on how to navigate these uncharted waters.

Suddenly in 2009, in the wake of the global economic crisis sparked by the sub-prime loan debacle in the US, the Japanese came to understand the dangers of deregulation affecting the labor market. Deregulation of the employment system was one of many neo-liberal reforms adopted by the government aimed at reviving an economy that was mired in the doldrums since the early 1990s. When Japan’s export markets collapsed in 2008–09, however, many non-regular workers lost their jobs, highlighting growing risk and disparities in a society that has emphasized minimizing both. The growing ranks of the working poor in 2009 (some 10 million) and unemployed (about 3.5 million) drew heightened media scrutiny, holding up a mirror for society. The working poor refers to people who earn less than JPY 2 million a year, often with little job security or prospects for improvement. Financial woes discourage many from marrying and also disadvantages their children’s life chances. This is not the Japan most Japanese wanted to see and they blamed the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) for recklessly raising risk while at the same time paring back the safety net needed to mitigate the consequences. Growing anxieties and anger, coupled with a sense that the LDP had run out of ideas, handed a landslide election victory to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in 2009, ending a prolonged period of one-party dominance, the so-called 1955 system. This apparent a tectonic change in Japanese politics fizzled as the DPJ failed to deliver on its agenda and the LDP roared back to power under PM Abe Shinzo (2012–20). He too had an agenda of transformation focusing on removing the shackles on Japan’s military stipulated in Article 9 of the 1947 Constitution and economic revival under the banner of Abenomics, but he resigned in 2020 before achieving either.

In focusing on 75 years of transformation, this book analyzes key challenges, actions and policy outcomes, and how these shape contemporary Japan. Here we consider the influence of the US Occupation (Chapter 2), postwar political changes (Chapter 3), factors favoring the economic miracle (Chapter 4), Japan’s relations with Asia (Chapter 5), security (Chapter 6), the situation of women (Chapter 7), the implications of a rapidly aging society (Chapter 8), the “lost decades” of the 1990s and 2000s (Chapter 9), the decade of upheaval since the March 2011 natural and nuclear disasters that ended with the pandemic (Chapter 10) and an overall assessment of transformation and Japan’s prospects (Chapter 11) in order to help readers better understand what kind of society Japan is becoming.

Part I The background

2 The US Occupation of Japan, 1945–52

DOI: 10.4324/9780429428562-3

Enemies to allies

An important story of the Occupation concerns how the US and Japan were able to transform their bitter rivalry into a close alliance. During the Pacific War (1941–45), the propaganda machines of both nations demonized and dehumanized the enemy to an extraordinary extent. Each side committed atrocities, but focused only on those committed by the other, and citizens on both sides of the Pacific were conditioned to expect the worst from each other (Dower, 1986b). The Japanese had seen 66 of their major cities reduced to ashes by extensive conventional bombing and firebombing. A nuclear weapon was dropped on Hiroshima August 6, 1945, killing 140,000 people, including many Koreans working in the city’s factories, while another nuclear weapon was dropped on Nagasaki three days later killing a further 80,000 people. The victims were mostly civilians. The twin tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought an abrupt end to what has been called a “war without mercy,” but the decision to surrender was opposed by military leaders until Emperor Showa (Hirohito) intervened and broke a deadlock among his senior advisors. Japan’s nearly 15-year rampage through Asia (1931–45) was finished, in the end claiming the lives of an estimated 3 million Japanese and over 15 million Asians, mostly in China. Japanese brutality in war, including mistreatment of prisoners-of-war (POWs), generated sentiments favoring retribution and punishment. It was in this inhospitable climate that US troops landed in Japan and began the Occupation.

The Occupation was aimed at demilitarizing and democratizing Japan. The US arranged for the repatriation of some 7 million Japanese scattered around the rubble of empire throughout the Asian theater, exacerbating unemployment and food and housing shortages. Upon returning home, the troops were demobilized and sent home with a train ticket and a bag of rice.

The demilitarization of Japan meant the elimination of the armed forces. This was seen to be a guarantee that Japan would not again embark on military adventurism. In the first two years of the Occupation purges of thousands of officers, bureaucrats and industrialists blamed for the war were a further hedge against a revanchist threat. Democratization was also seen to guarantee Japanese pacifism by eliminating the concentration of power exercised by a small elite prior to and during the war. By spreading power within the government and among all citizens, including voting rights for women, and by supporting a robust press and unions, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP) was attempting to inoculate Japan against the scourge of militarism. SCAP became synonymous with General Douglas MacArthur and also refers to the institutionalized presence of the occupation forces, sometimes also referred to as GHQ (General Head Quarters). SCAP did involve the participation of a British Commonwealth Force (United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and India) in the occupation, but the imperious General MacArthur called the shots and is remembered for describing Japan as a nation of 12-year-olds. US policies in the Occupation are best understood in the context of what people at that time thought had been the sources of Japan’s descent into militarism.

Figure 2.1 Meeting on September 2, 1945 between General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), and Emperor Hirohito. Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images.

What went wrong?

There are competing schools of thought when it comes to explaining what went wrong in Japan during the 1930s and 1940s. Some scholars trace the problem to the Meiji Constitution of 1889. They argue that the absence of checks and balances within the government and the concentration of broad discretionary powers in the office of the Emperor created a distorted system. The advisors of the Emperor could wield the power and authority of the Emperor to promote their agenda without having to accommodate the usual debate and compromise characteristic of a parliamentary system of democracy. During the Meiji period (1869–1911), these powers were used to transform Japan and promote modernization under the slogan “fukoku kyohei” (“rich nation, strong military”). Scholars generally credit the Meiji Emperor’s advisors with using these powers effectively, but given the unchecked, discretionary powers of government concentrated in the executive, the potential for the abuse of power, authoritarianism and radical swings in policy carried ominous potential. In this system, the military exercised de facto veto power because it could block the formation of a cabinet. The rising fortunes of the military based on victory over China in 1895 and Russia in 1905, combined with its decisive political power in forming cabinets, facilitated the emergence of military-dominated governments in the 1930s.

The Great Depression that started in 1929 in the US and soon spread around the world became a catalyst for Japanese militarism. The sharp decline in world trade caused by protectionist policies had a devastating impact on the Japanese economy, hitting the majority of Japanese still living in the countryside especially hard. The dislocation in rural areas dependent on the export of silk involved the familiar cycle of indebtedness, loss of land, growing class disparities and often the selling of daughters into prostitution. Many of Japan’s military officers were farm boys who were angered at the ineffectiveness of the government in bringing relief to their country brethren. In addition, they were disenchanted...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• Acknowledgments
• Chronology
• Who’s who
• Prime ministers since 1948
• Map
• 1 Introduction
• Part I The background
• Part II Analysis
• Part III Assessment
• Part IV Documents
• Glossary
• Guide to further reading
• Index