Kawakami Hajime

Kawakami Hajime

Kawakami Hajime ( Japanese 河 上 肇 ; born October 20, 1879 , in Iwakuni ( Yamaguchi Prefecture ); died January 30, 1946 ) was a Japanese economist and early Marxist of the Shōwa period .

life and work

Kawakami Hajime was born as the eldest son of a former samurai . In 1902 he completed his law studies at the University of Tokyo and then taught economics there until 1905. In 1905 he published the first translation of ERA Seligman's The Economic Interpretation of History from 1902 and a series under the title Evaluation of Socialism , Writings on Economy and socialism with which he became known. From 1907 to 1908 he published the New Journal on the Japanese Economy ( Nihon keizai shinshi ), which campaigned for a national economy. 1908 Kawakami was a lecturer at the University of Kyoto and after a study visit in 1914 in Europe, including law at the University of Berlin, became a professor there. In his best-known work, Tales of Poverty , which first appeared as a series in a newspaper and then as a book in 1917, he described the conditions in England as he had experienced them.

Kawakami was seen as an authority on classical economics, but increasing interest in social policy and comparative social science brought him close to Marxist economics. The founding of his magazine study of social problems ( 社会問題研究 , Shakai Kenkyu mondai ) 1919 then marked the conversion to Marxists. With his writings and translations, Kawakami played an important role in spreading Marxist teaching.

Kawakami's idiosyncratic interpretation of Marxism led to criticism from Kushida Tamizō ( 櫛 田 民 蔵 ; 1885–1934) and Fukumoto Kazuo ( 福 本 和 夫 ; 1894–1983), which made him rethink. From the 1920s, Kawakami turned increasingly to the proletarian movement. In 1928 he had to give up his professorship at the University of Kyoto, in 1932 he joined the Communist Party of Japan. He was arrested in January 1933 and sentenced to five years in prison. He did not revoke his political stance, which was called " Tenko " and also practiced in Japan , but promised not to continue to be politically active. He spent the period from 1930 until his death writing and translating.

Kawakami left behind many works on economics, social problems and an autobiography. He is buried at the Hōnin-in ( 法 然 院 ) in Kyōto.

Publications

• Translations of numerous works by Karl Marx (including Das Kapital ) and Lenin,
• Evaluation of socialism ( 社会主義 評論 , Shakaishugi hyōron )
• Stories about poverty ( 貧乏 物語 , Bimbō monogatari )
• Collected works by Kawakami Hajime, 12 volumes. ( 河 上 肇 著作 集 , Kawakami Hajime chōsakushū ),
• Anthology of Kawakami Hajime ( 河 上 肇 詩集 , Kawakami Hajime shishū ),
• Autobiography, 3 volumes ( 自叙 伝 , Jijoden ),
• Letters from Professor Kawakami ( 河 上 先生 か ら の 手紙 , Kawakami-sensei kara no tegami ),
• Prison Diary ( 獄中 日記 , Gokuchū nikki ).

credentials

1. ↑ ^{a b} S. Noma (Ed.): Kawakami Hajime. In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Kawakami Hajime. In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia . Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 763.
• Hunter, Janet: Kawakami Hajime. In: Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History . Kodansha International, 1984. ISBN 4-7700-1193-8 .

Web links

• Kawakami, 1914 at the University of Berlin

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Kawakami is the family name, Hajime the first name.