Western Impact and Asian Values in Japan's Modernization: A Weberian Critique

Abstract

Considers recent debates on the history of modernization in Japan, drawing on the writings of Max Weber. It is shown that Japan did not fit into Weber's sociological frameworks, either in his analysis of the role of religion in social & economic development, or in his assessment of Japan's political structure. However, his framework for modernization became seminal in the evolution of Japanese scholarship on this issue. Of particular importance in this regard is the work of Otsuka Hisao (1966), the translator of Weber's texts into Japanese. Japanese modernists have come to view Japanese modernization as an ambiguous blending of irrational & rational elements, a judgment that stands in sharp contrast to that of US modernists, who tend to focus on Buddhism as an unequivocal catalyst for Japanese modernization. While these debates are not resolved, it is suggested that any good explanation of Japanese modernization will entail consideration of both cultural & structural factors. 31 References. D. M. Ryfe