Japan

From Feudal to Corporate State

Defining Feudal States

Japan and France: feudal states had similar features:Contract involving protection for services (provision of agricultural products)Bonds of personal loyalty (fealty in France, bushido in Japan)Lord: landowner with military backingVassal: the peasant who provided servicesCentralized control within regions surrounded by larger regions not under any controlReplacement of horticulture or foraging with intensive cultivation (rice in Japan)

Japan: The Name

Nippon is the official name for Japan

Nihon is the informal name

Both terms means “land of the rising sun” (see flag, upper left)

This is given that Japan is east of China. (see map, lower left)

The term Japan probably comes from Malay, which Portuguese traders probably adopted

Eventually, the name Japan became widely adopted in Europe and the Americas

Pre-Feudal Japan

The country had settled communities long before agriculture

Fish, animal, and plant resources were abundant enough to support these communities

The Jomon period (10,500-300 BCE) was marked by decorative pottery (upper left)

Communities were build around a ritual or public center in a horseshoe pattern

This structure was found in a village dated 5,000-4,000 BP (before the present; lower left)

Nara: The First Centralized State

Japan developed an administrative apparatus early in Nara was the site of the first centralized stateIt was strong, but not enough to contain the warring feudal warriors known as samuraiThe administrative state was adopted from China’s hierarchical system of offices (the mandarins)Written literature also developed at 720 CE

Shoguns and Samurai

Shoguns were the heads of state, but subject to shifting fortunesFeudal lords (daimyo) competed for power over regions and one shogun could be replacedA shogun might dominate the entire nation of Japan, only to be overthrown at any timeSamurai were elite warriors who supported one or another feudal lordBy the time Commodore Matthew Perry forced open the nation of Japan, Tokugawa was the shogun for the entire polity

Formation of Japan: First Middle Ages I

Period: 1334-1568 CE (Common Era)Replacement of foraging with dry rice cultivation, then irrigated (wet) rice cultivationPopulations increased dramaticallyIntensification of land use extended to previously unusable landMilitary aristocracy gradually integrated extended family households into their realmsLord resisted integration into larger state

Formation of Japan: First Middle Ages II

Household clustered into settlement around the lord’s manorThese communities had their own water supply, land, and agricultureNonfarm craftsmen emerged, and incipient trade came into beingTowns and cities had not yet arisen Size of land holdings and populations increases became long-term trends

Consolidation of Japan: Second Middle Ages I

Period: 1568-1868, including the Tokugawa periodMore powerful rulers emerge, dominating regions over local lordsBase of advantage: wealth and military mightWaterways connected villages and supplied water to the fieldsMarkets emerged, forcing interdependence—you cannot produce everything yourselfPopulations increased and land sizes decreased

Consolidation of Japan: Second Middle Ages II

Technology advances:Iron tools introduced and existing tools are improvedNew rice varieties increase productivityFertilizer is introduced and increase production costs: fish cakes, fish oil, human manureInvolution: as field size declines, agriculture labor per field increasesDraft animals increase agricultural productionMarginal areas are cultivated, resulting in reduction of firewood and fodder

Development of Complex Social Institutions

Markets become important as single crops are grown for saleThis displaces multiple crops for subsistenceManufactured products create dependence in rural areasTo ensure safety, police forces are formed, laws enacted, and regional daimyos (great lords) enforce laws and securityGradually, fewer and fewer daimyos dominate ever greater regions.

Emergence of Unitary Society

Land become scarce, requiring contracts of loyaltyThey were personalistic in name only; law form the basis of contractsLandless peasants increase in size and peasant revolts became commonplaceSamurai warriors joined the landless peasants—with honor but without land, capital, or moneyThe emperor became the supreme authority

Institutional Basis of Japanese Modernity

Legal contracts converted land into a commodity that could be bought, sold, and deededWealth passed from daimyo to industrialists, merchants, and bureaucratsPower passed to a unitary monarchAn administrative apparatus emergedThe apparatus of a modern nation state developed even before Perry entered the scene

Tokugawa Era

Having had problems with Portuguese traders and missionaries, Japan kept foreign influence to a minimumDespite efforts to follow this policy, Tokugawa Japan could not resist the rising foreign commerce in AsiaThe commercialization of its own economy weakened the will of Japan to resist foreign tradersIn 1854, U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry presented an ultimatum: trade or be invadedJapan signed a treaty in 1854 promoting trade between the United States and Japan

Meiji Restoration

After a civil war in 1868, the Meiji regime established its control throughout the country

The daimyo and samurai were stripped of all power and assets

The 300 prefectures (reduced to 75) passed into the control of the emperor

A policy of industrialization and militarization began

Meiji Restoration: Workforce Development

The high population created a landless workforce available to work in the factories.Peasant girls were often recruited under a special program that ensured their “purity” while working on the assembly lineRationale: females tended to be more docile workers and less likely to join in labor movements than their male counterparts

Meiji Restoration: Industrialization

Japanese emissaries were sent across Europe and the United StatesCountries were selected that provided the best models of industry (upper left: train in Manchuria)The U.S. mail system was emulated in JapanBritain’s navy was the model for Japan’s navyHeavy industry from Germany was another modelThe corporate zaibatsu provided the motive force for the country’s developmentThe main four zaibatsu: Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, and YasudaLower left: Iwasaki Yataro, founder of Mitsubishi

Meiji Restoration: Militarism

Japan underwent military reforms beginning with the Meiji regimeThe Imperial Japanese Army was form, incorporated the latest military strategies of Western armed forcesConscription (the draft) was imposed in 1873; all males were to be drafted upon reaching 21Though the Samurai were dismantled, they live on for propaganda purposes into the 20th centuryBeing the best educated, the Samurai found employment in the bureaucracy and posts in the Imperial army.

Consequences of Modernization: Foreign Wars

The Russo-Japanese (top) and First Sino-Japanese Wars resulted in Japan’s annexation of Korea and the Sakhalin peninsula of RussiaThe Second Sino-Japanese War expanded Japanese control of Manchuria in 1931 and northeastern China in 1937The cutoff by the United States of oil to Japan led to the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941A well-trained military extended the War of the Pacific (Japan’s term for World War II) into a vour year periodThe atomic attacks at Hiroshima and Nagasaki (bottom) were arguably decisive factors in ending the war

Post-World War II Japan

Under the guidance of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, many of the institutions of postwar Japan were founded (upper left)Infusions of aid provided the initial impetus to rebuild (lower left)Restoration of the Japanese Diet (legislature)Universal voting rights by secret ballotFoundations for industrial revivalLabor rightsRelative freedom of the press

Modern Japan

One of the strongest industrialized countries of the world (reflected in the new Sony building in Tokyo, upper left)

Diverse industries from automobiles to computers (lower right)

A corporate society descended from the original zaibatsu

A model of Japanese management that guaranteed employment for life—which has since gone by the board

Vulnerability to the fluctuations of a global economy

Conclusion

Japan is dominated by an administrative state with a corporate economyThe pattern is deeply rooted in historyThe Jomon period began with settled, well-designed communities even without agricultureIt went through a period of warlord-dominated feudalismNevertheless, with the Tokugawa period and reinforced by the Meiji restoration, Japan developed a highly centralized administrative stateThe corporate structure reflects this pattern.