And I'm not even gonna lie, this is for my comparative politics class. I have to do a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation on Japan. Figured I'd make it interesting for myself and blog about it instead of writing my thoughts out in a rigidly structured essay. Plus, I get to share what I know and that's always cool. Even if it's with one person.
The focal point of this argument is to explain how Japan became a middle developer through political culture and political leadership. Before I begin, I'm going to run through some definitions for those who are not poly-sci savvy. Here's a quick, condensed poly-sci lesson:
There are four paths of development.
(1) Early developers (ex. U.S.A., Britain, France, Canada)
(2) Middle developers (ex. Germany, Japan, Italy)
(3) Late developers (ex. China, Russia)
(4) Experimental developers (ex. Mexico, India)
Every country in the world falls into one of these categories. Japan is considered a middle developer because it didn't modernize until the post-WWII period, whereas early developers, obviously, developed earlier. This actually served as a benefit for middle developers since the pathway to modernization was already paved; the countries following the footsteps of early developers have an example set out for them, along with the knowledge of how to become modernized. Basically, the tough work is already done for them. This brings us to another term, what is modernization? Or modernization theory, rather. It is, "the belief that the more industrialized, urban, and modern a society becomes, the more social change and improvement are possible as traditional patterns and attitudes are abandoned or transformed" (http://bit.ly/3b4qut). In laymen terms, the more industrialized a country becomes, the more powerful it is. Think about it, industrialization leads to greater tools, greater tools lead to a GDP boost, GDP boosts lead to... yeah, that's right. A powerful country, or, a "modernized" country to put it in a euphemistic term.
Political leadership means what it sounds like. Political leadership.
Political culture is the reaction of a people towards their country's politics.
Okay, so now that some interesting information was laid out, back to Japan!
Japan is a very interesting case (another word for country) to study. It would be nearly impossible or incredibly vague for me to start at the beginning of time till present day Japan. It would also be a history lesson which this is not supposed to be. Therefore I will start the basis of my argument during the Tokugawa shogunate time period.
Tokugawa Japan, 1603-1867:
In the year 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu won the battle of Sekigahara practically achieving unlimited power and wealth. Three years later, In 1603, Ieyasu was appointed Shogun by the emperor and established his government in Edo (which is present day Tokyo). The Tokugawa shoguns continued to rule Japan for 26 decades (which is equivalent to two and a half centuries). The reason for this was because at the time, Japan's emperors were too weak to govern the country so the emperor’s resided in Kyoto while the shoguns ruled from Edo. Ieyasu was considered a very powerful man since he brought the whole country under his tight control. For example, the daimyo DIE-MEOH (feudal lord) were required to spend every other year in Edo working for the shogun. While they weren't working for the shogun and traveled back to their feudal lands, it was required for them to leave their families in Edo as hostages. This system was known as sankin kotai and greatly benefited the Tokugawa shogun since it prevented rival powers from emerging. And this actually also played a significant role in Japan’s economic sector since the DIE-MEOH’s constant travel required an elaborate road system to be developed. This road system helped support local economies as well as urbanization and by 1720, Edo became the largest city in the world.
During the Tokugawa period, Japan was considered a Confucian class-based society stressing the importance of morals, education and order in the government and society: with a hierarchy of samurai, peasants, artisans, and merchants, in descending order. Even lower than the merchants were the eta – or the outcasts. During the 17th century, Christianity was banned and Japan remained with a belief system of Buddhism and Shintoism.
This was a very isolated period for Japan since it closed its ports to foreigners in the 1630’s. The Dutch and the Chinese were the only ones with granted permission to trade with Japan. In the summer of 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry compelled the opening of Japan to the West per President Fillmore’s request. A peace and friendship treaty was signed and limited trade was granted. Perry’s visit marked an important event because it began a century of changes in Japanese politics, economics, and society due to other countries following in the U.S. footsteps and demanding Japan to open their ports to them.
Bakumatsu is also known as the Late Tokugawa Shogunate Period which is the closing of the Edo period. It basically marks the transition of the Tokugawa period into the Meiji MEY-GEE Period. Bakumatsu is characterized by major events throughout 1853 and 1867 such as the end of the isolationist foreign policy, which is called sakoku, meaning “locked or chained country.”
During the Meiji Era, Prince Mutsuhito became Japan’s 122nd emperor at the age of 14 till his death. Prince Mutsuhito undertook the name Meiji which means “enlightened government” and reformed Japan through institutional and cultural transformation. Throughout the entire Meiji Era, profound changes were made to all sectors of society. The main goal for this era was to achieve a rich country and a strong military status and modernize the country. They figured the best way to do this would be to learn Western ways and traditions so they sent students abroad to learn everything Western, and brought Western advisers and teachers to Japan as well. As a result, the end of the Meiji Era did succeed in this challenge and created a modern state, a new economy, as well as a rebuilt society -- which was very remarkable considering how much was achieved in a very small amount of time. The Meiji leaders went on to adopt a Prussian style constitution since they considered the U.S. constitution a bit too liberal.
On July 30, 1912, the Meiji Emperor Mutsuhito died. Succeeding him was the Taisho Emperor. During this period of Taisho Democracy, the first commoner became prime minister, a competitive party system was established, and suffrage was extended to all males. Just after suffrage was extended to all males in 1925, conservatives pushed through a Peace Preservation Law which was practically a mechanism for the Imperial family to root itself from growing a left wing. It forbade revolt against the national essence of Japan and criminalized socialism, communism, and other ideologies that would threaten Japan's emperor-centered social order.
Now the question is, what did all these events do for Japan? All these events led to the strengthening of the military. By the 1930s militarists had gained the upper hand and the anticipation for a democratic Japan diminished. Japan took over Manchuria formally detaching it from China in 1931. This set the stage for the eventual military takeover of the Japanese government – which in turn caused The Imperial Colors Incident (also known as the October Incident). This was launched by the Sakurakai which was a secret society within the Imperial Japanese Army that tried to overtake the government soon after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Captain Isamu Chō had returned secretly to Japan (without orders) from North China to lead the way. He was able to recruit the support of 120 members of the Sakurakai, ten companies of troops from the Imperial Guards and ten bomber aircraft from the Imperial Japanese Navy.
This ended in failure and in the dissolution of the Sakurakai.
The Pacific War broke out on July 7th, 1937 initially between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China, but by December 1941, Japan became part of the World War II and allied itself with Germany and Italy. The U.S. felt the need to limit Japanese imperialism, so they raised the embargo on scrap metals, iron, and oil in Japan. Japan didn’t like this very much. They responded by attacking Pearl Harbor and even further extended their sphere of influence into Southeast Asia in a journey to secure oil and to become the leading power in Asia. Japan then declared war on the United States in 1941, resulting in the United States becoming militarily involved in WWII. The end results were Japan’s colonization of Korea, China, Taiwan, and its military advance into large parts of Southeast Asia. This was done to remove Western Imperialists from Japan.
The U.S. postwar occupation of Japan caused a rapid democratization of the country. About two months after the occupation began, General Douglas MacArthur called for the liberalization of the constitution, and the demilitarization and democratization process happened rather quickly. Prime Minister Yoshida, which was Prime Minister from 1946-1954 was supportive of the U.S. occupation which was important because, as some would argue, Japan needed to be led by a man supporting this, since political culture relied heavily on political leadership.
Present Day Japan
After 55 years of the Liberal Democratic Party ruling Japan, a historic election took place in September with the people voting for the opposing party, the Democratic Party to be exact, and Yukio Hatoyama became Prime Minister. The reason for this radical change is because the people were experiencing a huge dissatisfaction with the LDP, primarily due to economical reasons. Yukio Hatoyama's advocacy for change, very similar to Obama's, inspired the people to sway their votes in a different direction in hopes of finally achieving different results.
