Japan

Political Culture

1. Homogeneity2. Uniqueness3. Isolation4. Borrowing5. Geography6. Communitarian7. Adaptability/Organizational skills8. Emperor9. Power is behind the scenes

1. Homogeneity

• 98% Japanese

• Korean and Chinese minority

• Status of Burakumin

2. Uniqueness

3. IsolationFrom: 1600/1638

To: 1853

4. Borrowing

Japanese spinTradition on foreign ideas

“Japanification”foreignideas

5. Geography

From: Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, http://tochi.mlit.go.jp/h19hakusho/set_0_eng.htm

6. Communitarian

Individualistic?“The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

Communitarian?“The nail that sticks up gets hammered

down.”

The role of geography and economics

7. Adaptability and Organizational Skills

Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry data from: http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/challenge/energy/nuclear/p-necess-e.html

8. Emperor

• First Emperor,Jimmu Tenno(660-585 BC),• Great, Great, Great, Grandson of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess,• National FoundationDay: Feb 11

9. Power behind the Scenes

Tanaka Kakuei

LDP, 1960s-1980s

Ozawa Ichiro

DPJ, 1990s-present

Periods of History

1. 10th-17th: Feudal Japan

2. 1600-1868 Tokugawa Era

3. 1868 Meiji Restoration

4. 1920s-1940s: – Institutionalists vs. Nationalists

1. Feudal Japan

From: Government of Saskatchewan, 7th Grade Curriculum,

http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/midlsoc/gr7/74handouts1.html

Samurai Class

Nitobe Inazo, Bushido: The Soul of Japan, 1908

Centralization Grows: Shogun

• Oda Nobunaga 1568-1582

• Toyotomi Hideyoshi 1582-1598– Unified Japan 1590– 1598: Tokugawa shogunate vs. Mitsunari

shogunate

Battle of Sekigahara, 1600

Sekigahara Action Figure

2. Tokugawa Era: 1600-1868

Tokugawa Era

• Isolation

• Centralized Feudalism

• Emperor?

Samurai of 1860s

3. Meiji Restoration

• End of isolation

• Restoration and revolution

• Birth of Modern Japan

1853 US Navy in Tokyo Bay

Treaty of Kanagawa, March 31, 1854

Meiji Restoration:Emperor Mutsuhito

1852-1912

Meiji Era: 1867-1912

(enlightened rule)

The Restoration

• 1889 Constitution• Article 1. The Empire of Japan shall be

reigned over and governed by a line of Emperors unbroken for ages eternal.

• Article 3. The Emperor is sacred and inviolable.

• Article 4. The Emperor is the head of the Empire, combining in Himself the rights of sovereignty...

• Article 11. The Emperor has the supreme command of the Army and Navy.

Power and ExpansionSino-Japanese War 1894-5

Treaty Of Shimonoseki

Russo-Japanese War 1904-5

Treaty of Portsmouth

4. Nationalism and War• Ultranationalists vs. Institutionalists

• Washington Naval Treaty 1922

• London Naval Treaty 1930

• 1931 Manchuria (Manchukuo)

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor

May 1945 Tokyo Firebombing

Tokyo after the Attacks

Hiroshima August 6, 1945

After the bomb

Nagasaki August 9, 1945

Post-War Japanese Government• Surrender, Occupation and Punishment

• US-Japan Security Treaty, 1951 (1952)

Japanese Foreign Minister

Shigemitsu Mamoru

Signing the surrender

Agreement, 9/2/45