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(★)(The industrial revolution in England was accompanied by the formulation of a new, middle-class social philosophy. This synthesis of ideas from the writings of Locke, Smith, Bentham, Ricardo, Malthus, Spencer, and others formed the nucleus of the ideology of capitalism in both England and America. The effect of this ideology was to sanction the acquisition of political and economic power by the middle class ; to explain why it was just and proper that the leaders of industry and commerce should enjoy an increasingly larger share of wealth and privilege. By providing the basis for a new social consensus, this philosophy of economic individualism, with its emphasis on such themes as the importance of material progress, the virtues of labor and self-help, and the desirability as well as the inevitability of conpetitive struggle, greatly influenced acceptance of the new social structure that emerged as industrialization took place. Thus industrialization in England and America was accompanied by a restructuring of the value system in order to give a greater prominence to the private entrepreneurs, the ´Captains of Industry´, who formed the new economic elite.／ In Japan also, industrialization produced a new economic elite who, as the leaders of modern business enterprise, were responsible for mobilizing the nation´s resources and creating the economic institutions suitable to an industrial society. As in the West, members of this elite individually and collectively acquired a growing share of political and economic power. For the most part, however, the exervise of this power lacked the sort of ideological sanction that served to legitimize the position of the business class in England and America. In Japan, industrialization and its concomitant social changes took place under the sanction of what remained in essence the traditional value system --a preindustrial value system in which there was little provision for the legitimate exercise of power by a private business class. As one student of modern Japanese society put it : ´The businessman, even the big businessman, has not yet been able to compete with either the intellectual elite or the government functionary as an ideal type in his culture ; and for the practical man, wealth and sheer economic power has not given the general communal prestige or final effective power that political position bestows.´／ One of the most intriguing aspects of the persistence of traditional values in Japan is the failure of the business elite to promote a new social consensus better suited to support their role in an industrial society based on private enterprise. In their effort to justify a position of wealth and power for the modern business class, Japanese business spokesmen explicitly rejected the major tenets of the Anglo-American capitalist creed in favor of traditional Japanese values. They denounced the Western philosophy of economic individualism for its stress on the pursuit of personal gain, and claimed that Japanese businessmen were motivated by patriotic devotion and a willingness to sacrifice for the common good. Prominent businessmen such as Shibusawa Eiichi went so far as to deny that personal profit was even a consideration in their business decisions. Thus business spokesmen attempted to convince their critics, their workers, and themselves that modern entrepreneurs were entitled to prestige and authority because they served the nation in the same selfless manner as the samurai of old. Nevertheless, the difficulty of reconciling traditional values of group-orientation with the profit-orientation inherent in the institutions of private enterprise served to render the Japanese business elite exceedingly vulnerable to attack from both the socialist left and the ultranationalist right in prewar Japan. In the 1930´s, business leaders found themselves faced with the difficulties involved in attempting to justify private ownership and profit incentives while denying any interest in material rewards.／ The purpose of this book is to analyze Japanese business ideology in the prewar period in order to explicate this dilemma, and to suggest some of the reasons why the business elite were reluctant to break with the values of the past. I hope to show in particular that their predilection for traditional values arose in large part from the Japanese businessmen´s view of their own interests in the early stages of industrialization, and that it was not merly a passive acceptance of an official orthodoxy imposed by political leaders from above. In other words, despite the fact that the interests of the business class would seem to have been poorly served in the long run by a philosophy that stressed the subordination of the individual to the collective goals of the State, it was the business leaders themselves who contributed substantially to both the formulation and the maintenance of the view of society that gained acceptance as orthodox in prewar Japan.／ The Meiji Restoration of 1868 did not bring any fundamental changes in traditional attitudes toward the merchant class. The overthrow of the shogunate and the dismantling of the old political and social structure were engineered primarily by discontented members of the samurai class who had little interest in sharing power with a merchant class for whom they felt neither affection nor respect. There were some among the merchant class, and especially among the rural entrepreneurs, who may have welcomed the downfall of the shogunate ; support from such elements may even have been crucial to the success of the Meiji Restoration. But the Restoration was not in any meaningful sense a middle-class revolution ; and furthermore, although the new political elite proved keenly aware of the importance of economic development to the future of Japan, and took immediate steps to remove the existing restrictions on industry and commerce, their policies did not necessarily imply approval of the values of the industrial societies of nineteenth-century England and America. After a brief flirtation with Western social and ethical doctrines, Meiji officials returned to traditional sources for the moral inspiration they believed essential to rapid national progress. This can be seen in the educational system : for example, ethics textbooks dating back to the 1870´s, which had been modeled on, or in some instances even directly translated from, those in use in England and the United States, were replaced in the 1890´s with texts in which the Confucian principles of individual submission to family, to social superiors, and above all to the State were reasserted.／ The Meiji Restoration had two important consequences for the status of the business class. First, the Tokugawa merchant class gained remarkably little in power and prestige from the Restoration. On the contrary, when many of the merchant class proved unwilling or unable to adjust to the demands of foreign trade and modern industry, they became targets for the scorn and abuse of the Meiji reformers. For example, in 1873 Inoue Kaoru and Shibusawa Eiichi, young officials in the Meiji government, announced that they intended to resign from government service in order to devote themselves to business enterprise because they believed the old merchants unfit for the tasks of economic modernization : ´Sometimes we hear of a few who are reputed for cleverness, but they turn out to be men who rejoice in corruption, engage in speculation or monopolize profits. The worst of them ruin their business and lose their property by cheating, by fraud, and committing all sorts of dishonesty.／[from ´INTRODUCTION´] ▼CONTENTS／ ◎1.Introduction／ ◎2.Private Entrepreneurs and the Meiji Government／ ◎3.The Meiji Business Elite and the Way of the Warrior／ ◎4.Early Industrialists and the Controversy over Labor Legislation／ ◎5.Business Ideology and the Labor Union Movement／ ◎6.The Japanese Business Elite and the Defense of Capitalism／ ◎7.Conclusion／ |
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