Japan : the burden of success

394 Pages·2002·12.105 MB·English

by  Jean-Marie Bouissou

The CERI Series in Comparative Politics and International Studies
Series editors: CHRISTOPHE JAFFRELOT AND CHRISTIAN LEQUESNE
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gion on the other. States are more permeable to external influence than
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JEAN-MARIE BOUISSOU
Japan
The Burden of Success
HURST & COMPANY, LONDON
in association with the
Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales, Paris
Published as LeJapon depuis 1945
by Armand Colin, Paris, in 1992
(2nd edn 1997)
First published in the United Kingdom by
C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd
38 King Street, London WC2E 8JZ
English translation and updating © C. Hurst & Co.
(Publishers) Ltd, 2002
All rights reserved.
Set in Bembo by Bookcraft Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire
Printed in India
ISBN 1-85065-564-2 casebound
ISBN 1 -85065-569-3 paperback
The right of Jean-Marie Bouissou to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988.
A British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data record is available for
this book.
Translated from the French
by Jonathan Derrick
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During my fifteen-year stay in Japan, from 1975 to 1990, so many
people helped me first to survive, then to enjoy, then to under­
stand that country that I am bound to be unjust to many. I would
like to mention first the late Hajime Ogawa, who used to be my
student and my friend, and was immensely useful to my studies
since he worked at the National Diet Library and turned it into a
treasure chest of documents for me. His premature death means
that I can never repay the girt11 owe him. My utmost gratitude also
goes to Jean-Luc Domenach, an eminent sinologist but also a
good connoisseur of Japan, who airlifted me back to Paris in 1990,
arranged my amakudari2 at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences
Politiques, and provided both relentless stimulus and far-sighted
guidance for my work.
The Japan Foundation’s continuous support has proved to be
an invaluable asset for me, as for so many researchers and academ­
ics all around the world. And the institutional support of the
Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales, to which I
belong, was rock-solid.
Among the many Japanese academics I came to know, I thank
especially Professor Yoshiharu Tsuboi (now ofWaseda Univer­
sity), for his sometimes critical but always friendly advice and
logistical support for every of my field-studies. Professor Eiko
Nakamura, from Fukuoka Seinan University, treated me like a
spoiled child to be disciplined - which I was - but tirelessly intro­
duced me to everybody I begged her to. I am also heavily indebted
to Professor Hideo Otake of Kyoto National University,
Muneyuki Shindo of Rikkyo University, Masaharu Nakamura of
Sophia University, Hirotaka Watanabe from Tokyo University of
Foreign Studies, the late Sakio Takayanagi from Chuo, and
Susumu Takahashi, Ikuo Kabashima and Junko Kato - the three
of them from Todai.
1 Giri: the moral debt owed to one’s parents, teachers, employer and benefactors.
2 Amakudari: ‘the descent from Heaven’ (the profitable retirement of Japanese civil
servants in private sector jobs).
V
VI Acknowledgements
On the French side, Loic Hennekine and Andre Ross, both
former ambassadors to Japan, know how grateful I am to them
and why. Gerard Coste, former French Cultural Counsellor in
Tokyo, who later helped to engineer the birth of the ASEM as
Ambassador to Singapore, made my stay in Japan possible from
1984 to 1990.
From the British side, Professor Richard Higgott and Glenn
Hook made me discover something that I never suspected before
enjoying both intellectual interaction and the life with them - that
I’honnete homme can also be an Englishman. This discovery was
decisive for convincing me that my work might eventually be suit­
able for use abroad. In this connection I am also very grateful to
my translator, Jonathan Derrick, who had to grapple with my
rather too literary style.
Last but not least, I am immensely grateful to Elisabeth for her
love and forbearance during the tense period of writing the first
edition of this book, and to Masami for the second one.
Paris, January 2002 J.-M.B.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements page v
Preface xv
Japanese names and words xx
Chapters
1. JAPAN IN 1945: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 1
Japan, State and Nation: a ‘Normal’ History 1
Fallacies, conspiracies, bloodshed and treason 1
77ie u><jy to ‘harmony’: submissive ideologies 1
Closed country and ‘straitjacket’ society: the Tokugawa era
(1603-1867) 11
Seeds of change behind closed doors 13
Restoration, renovation or revolution? The Meiji era
(1868-1912) 16
The First Japanese Miracle (1868-1931) 18
Why didJapan escape the fate of China? 18
Pragmatic way to economic growth 20
Political modernisation: democracy vs. the ‘imperial system’ 24
The perils of modernisation: the land of rising class struggles 27
Learning the power game: the first phase of Japan’s colonial
expansion 28
Japan under Military Control (1931-45) 30
The Army’s march to power 30
Moulding Fascism into Japanese-ness’ 31
Was Japan blind? How ‘normal’ expansionism went off course 34
viii Contents
2. THE OCCUPATION: UNFINISHED
DEMOCRATISATION 39
Punishment Plans Cut Short 40
Purges: unfinished work 40
The war criminals, the Emperor and the Tokyo trial 42
War reparations and the break-up of the Zaibatsus 45
Democratisation 48
The new constitution: seedbed of future conflicts 48
Democratising education: the road to overcompetition 52
Local government reform: failure of decentralisation 54
Reforms and Social Change 55
Land reform: exceptionally radical 55
Trade union law reform and the outbreak of labour unrest 58
The SCAP’s turn-about 60
Civil law reform: liberation of women 62
Political Change 65
The 1946 elections and the first Yoshida government 65
The 1947 elections and the Socialist-Conservative coalitions 68
Yoshida’s triumphs (1948-52) 70
The End of the Occupation 72
The Treaty of San Francisco and the US Security Treaty 72
Unresolved problems: Korea and China 74
Japan after the Occupation 76
Facing itself: the shattered image 76
Facingfreedom: a burst of creativity 77
Facing the past: towards self-absolution 78
Facing the United States 79 3
3. LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE MIRACLE
(1952-62) 81
Politics: From Confrontation to Stabilisation 81
Confrontation among conservatives - Yoshida vs. the
Old Guard 81
Contents ix
Stabilisation: the birth of the Liberal Democratic Party 84
National confrontation: the Kishigovernment and the
‘Reverse Course’(1957-60) 86
The Security Treaty crisis and the fall of Kishi 89
Impact of the crisis; the Ikeda government takes over 94
The Economy: Foundations Laid for the Miracle 98
Financing, controlling, enticing 99
Foreign trade regulation and protectionism 100
Regulation of competition and encouragement of innovation 101
The threat of liberalisation: ‘black ships’ II 103
Society in the Growth Period 103
Rising standards of living and the consumer revolution 103
A job for life - within limits 105
Persistence of the dual economy 107
A large rural population still 107
Trade unions: weaknesses and adaptation 108
New Ways of Thinking? 110
The ‘Tribe of the Sun’ - and others 110
Rich and diverse literature 111
The heyday offapanese cinema 111
Foreign Policy: Japan Returns to the International Scene 113
Dependence on the USA and its limits 113
Normalisation of relations with the USSR; UN membership 115
Between two Chinas 116
Japan’s return to South-East Asia 117
The rest of the world 118 4
4. THE ‘MIRACLE’ AND ITS OTHER SIDE
(1962-72) 120
The Decade of the Economic Miracle 120
The High Growth Era (Kodo seicho) 120
The recipes for growth 122
New elements: challenge to MITI 124
X Contents
The Other Side of the Miracle 126
Pollution, a national disaster: the ‘four big cases’ 126
Hard life in the mega-cities 127
Disarray, uncertainty and the ‘new religions’ 129
Youth, cinema and revolt 130
Intellectuals in disarray and the return of ‘Japanese-ness’ 133
New Struggles 135
Citizen, community and consumer movements 135
Anti-discrimination movements 136
The student outbreak of 1968 and the terrorist movement 139
Parties and the Political System in a Time of Change 141
The Liberal Democratic Party: steady consolidation 142
The Japan Socialist Party: gradual decline 145
The Communist Party: revival 146
Buddhist politics: the Komeito 148
The Democratic Socialist Party: stagnation 149
Pressure Groups in the Political System; Neo-Corporatist
Trends 150
Employers’ organisations: not all-powerful 151
Small-scale business: a growingforce 151
Agricultural cooperatives: the pillar of the LDP’s hegemony 152
Religious movements 153
Other pressure groups 154
Foreign Policy 155
Tension with the United States: the ‘Nixon shocks’ 155
Normalising relations with China 159
The Soviet Union: enduring antagonism 160
Normalising relations with Korea 160
First Asian cooperation moves 161
Limited role elsewhere 164
End of the Sato Government, July 1972 164
Contents xi
5. A SHOCK-ABSORBER SYSTEM (1972-80) 167
A Nation in Crisis (1972-6) 167
Trade crisis, oil shock, hyperinflation 167
Political crisis: the Tanaka government (1972-4) 169
‘Money politics’ and the fall of Tanaka 173
The Miki government and the Lockheed scandal (1974-6) 175
Economic Recovery 178
Relaunching and restructuring the economy 178
The other side of success: rising trade friction 181
The budget crisis and the debate on taxation 183
The Conservative Comeback (1977-80) 185
The Fukuda government (1977-8) 185
The Ohira government (1978-80) 187
An Impotent Opposition 190
The Socialist Party: paralysed by divisions 190
The Komeito: from opposition to collaboration 193
The Communist Party: solid but marginal 195
Democratic Socialists, Shaminren and the New Liberal Club -
desperately waiting for a role 196
Mini-parties: a new political force in the making 197
Conservative Trends in Society 198
Social movements: division and recovery 198
Conservatives on the offensive 199
The ‘new middle-class masses’: conformity, ‘my-homeism’ and
the decline of ideologies 203
Japan and the outside world: distrust vs. superiority complex 205
Foreign Policy 206
A new posture: ‘all-round diplomacy’ 206
Between Beijing and Moscow: how to deal with unquiet
giants? 208
From Asia to the Pacific Basin: broadening vision 209
Elsewhere in the world 212