Nihonjinron

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The Inglehart - Welzel culture map - based on survey data from the World Values ​​Survey - shows: More than any of the other cultures listed, Japan is at the upper end of the scale in terms of secularism and rationality.

Nihonjinron ( Japanese. 日本人 論 ), usually translated as “Japanese discourse / e”, is a collective term for a direction in Japanese post-war literature that, especially after the peace treaty of 1952 in San Francisco , found itself in thousands of books and articles with the " Essence " and the cultural identity of the Japanese dealt with (cf. kokutai and yamato-damashii ). Similar, specialized terms are often created by insertions, for example Nihonbunkaron ( 日本 文化 論 ) ("Discourse / s on Japanese culture ") or Nihonkeizairon ( 日本 経 済 論 ) ("Discourse / s on Japanese economy ").

Basic theses

The following four premises are typical of works by Nihonjinron:

  • Uniqueness: Japan and the Japanese are unique, and their uniqueness affects all areas of life. This made them radically different from all other nations.
  • Racial nature: This uniqueness of the Japanese is due to the characteristics of the "Japanese race" or ethnicity and a "Japanese spirit".
  • Ahistoricity: The peculiarities of the Japanese are a constant through all epochs.
  • Homogeneity: The Japanese as a people / race / ethnic group are culturally and socially homogeneous and their essence has not changed since prehistoric times.

These basic postulates can be found in theses, such as the one that outsiders are simply unable to understand the Japanese language , the Japanese rules of conduct and the essence of Japanese culture ; or in the assertion that only in Japanese territory there are four clearly distinguishable seasons .

From the point of view of sociology and other sciences, the four basic theses as well as the conclusions from them are to be rejected and most of the works of Nihonjinron are to be classified as popular science , if not pseudoscientific . Many of them nonetheless originate at state educational institutions recognized in Japan and nonetheless works from the field of Nihonjinron are repeatedly cited in Japanese studies and are responsible for many popular errors about Japan.

causes

The popularity of the Nihonjinron in Japan is explained by the fact that Japanese society has had to cope with radical upheavals in almost every generation over the past 150 years, repeatedly fluctuating between strong nationalism on the one hand and cosmopolitanism on the other, but also between rapid progress and deep crises.

In the Edo period , Japanese society was still strictly regulated and isolated from the world. Although the Kokugaku School showed the first signs of national consciousness , the Kokugaku authors were more concerned with emancipation from the Chinese heritage than with a modern nation-state idea. From 1850 onwards, the rigid framework of the four- estate order of the Edo period broke under pressure from the reformers from within and the western colonial powers from without. The shogunate administration tried until the 1860s to stop the influence of the West, but with the Meiji Restoration , the tide was turned around: The goal was now to rebuild the country as quickly as possible along the lines of the western industrial nations. But the tide turned again as early as the 1890s: With its victory in the First Sino-Japanese War , Japan had enough self-confidence to push back the intellectual influence of the West. The country rose into Japanese nationalism, but this too was interrupted by the Taishō period , when the liberal forces and labor movements grew stronger, while a weak emperor offered no support to the conservative forces. But in the 1930s, the military succeeded in taking political control and the country became strictly nationalist again. But after military successes up to 1941, the defeat in the Pacific War followed . Japan was occupied by a foreign power for the first time in its history, and with the American soldiers, American culture came to Japan. But from the 1960s onwards, the occupation was followed by a period of unprecedented economic growth, which only turned into a decade of stagnation in the 1990s.

Due to these constantly changing framework conditions, each generation grew up in a completely changed Japan, so that the need was and is great to create a common identity over the generational conflicts caused by it. In the 1960s, the young generation of Japanese was so “different” that the term shinjinrui ( 新 人類 ), “new type of person” was created for them.

In addition, the causes of the Nihonjinron also seem to lie in the Japanese scientific community. Traditionally (see Rangaku ) there is an asymmetry in the exchange of knowledge between the Japanese and the international scientific community . European and North American theories and research results are widely received and translated into Japanese, while Japanese discourses are only insufficiently pursued internationally and included in the critical discussion, probably due to the language barrier. Some non-Japanese authors belonging to the Nihonjinron group have no or only very limited command of the Japanese language, which does not detract from their popularity in Japan. The exoticism in Japan, which is not uncommon in Western publications about Japan, is also often not recognized or criticized.

history

The Kokugaku school mentioned above can be regarded as the forerunner of Nihonjinron. However, one only speaks of Nihonjinron in publications from the post-war period. According to the Japanese author Tamotsu Aoki ( 青木 保 ), four phases of Nihonjinron can be identified:

First phase (1945–1954): Japanicity as a negative

With the lost war, the destruction of the country, the loss of the colonies and the fresh memory of conformity and atrocities, Japan was seen by the authors of the post-war period as irrational and premodern. The criticism is not only of nationalism and militarism, but also of the authoritarian family system of the Meiji period.

Authors
Kawashima

Second phase (1955–1963): Japaneseism as a historical relative

With the regaining of sovereignty in 1952 and the stabilization of political conditions in the 55 system , the fundamental criticism declined, Japan is now seen as a mixed culture. The authors are now looking for parallel developments between Japan and Europe.

Authors
Katō, Umesao

Third phase (1964–1976, 1977–1983): Japanicity as a positive

With the high economic growth of Japan in the 1960s, the self-image continued to turn: the success was specifically attributed to Japanese characteristics. Groupthink and vertical structures were now seen positively, especially the emotional participation of the individual in the group. During this phase, Doi Takeo coined the term amae , a strong need for support, as a peculiarity of the Japanese psyche. It is this social lubricant that makes Japanese society work.

Early Third Phase Authors
Doi Takeo, Chie Nakane　

In the further course of the third phase, the “Japanese model” was fully accepted. The western model of individualism, of identification through the ego, now had negative connotations. As a counterpart, an “intersubject being” was designed, an identification through social ties.

Late third phase authors
Hamaguchi

The West also became aware of Japan's economic success, and as in Ruth Benedict's time there was a need to get an explanation for the sudden competition from an unexpected source. Books by Nihonjinron authors, particularly Nakane, have been translated into English. Some western authors, above all Ezra Vogel , took up the Nihonjinron theses and recommended Japan as a model for the USA and other western countries. This met with a very positive response, as the United States was in a crisis at this point due to the (second) oil crisis and high inflation. Ezra Vogel praised Japan above all for its ability to act according to purely rational considerations and to be able to consistently adapt its own development to current problems.

Fourth phase (1984-): From Japaneseism to globality

In the fourth phase, Japan is in the international spotlight: Japanese companies have acquired significant market shares in areas such as electrical engineering and auto manufacturing, and the appreciation of Japanese real estate, stocks and currency is creating a large amount of liquidity among Japanese companies and the upper classes. Japanese corporations and Japanese tourists go on international shopping tours. Although Japan is benefiting greatly from internationalization, there is at the same time a conservative counter-movement that the country would like to seal off again in this decadent phase.

Japanese authors are starting to criticize the darker side of the Japanese economy and society:

  • the labor market is neither free nor permeable and discriminates against women and the poorly educated
  • Stagnation occurs within the company hierarchies due to the "escalator system"
  • emphasizing group identity suppresses creativity
  • the individual lacks motivation
  • Japan becomes arrogant

Japan also has to take criticism from outside. In numerous trade rounds, the US is trying to protect its economy from the more successful Japanese, and the Nihonjinron authors are also heavily criticized. A real " Japan bashing " sets in. Peter Dale works out the postulates of the Nihonjinron, the uniqueness of the Japanese race and the ahistoricity, and refutes them. Nihonjinron literature is branded as "scientific nationalism".

Authors
Hamaguchi, Karel van Wolferen , Peter Dale

Nihonjinron in the west

The western literature on Japan was also largely based on Nihonjinron. A famous Nihonjinron book by a foreigner is, for example, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword by Ruth Benedict , published in 1946. The book was written during the Pacific War when the American government suddenly faced the problem of assessing a hitherto unknown enemy, namely the Japanese have to. Ruth Benedict's analysis is based on interviews she conducted with Japanese prisoners of war and interned Japanese Americans ( Nikkeijin ) (日 系 人). In particular, she coined the term shame culture , which should stand as a contrast to the western culture of guilt . Benedict's work in turn served as a starting point for the Japanese nihonjinron of the post-war period. The cultural relativism she advocated in Japan led to the demand for a description of Japanese culture out of itself ( emic perspective).

"Spiritual Nihonjinron"

The religious scholar Shimazono Susumu (University of Tōkyō) indicated a special orientation of Nihonjinron in academic circles in 1994 with the designation "New Spiritual Movement" (新 霊 性 運動, shinreisei undō). He uses this to refer to the argument of Japanese intellectuals that emerged in the 1980s and 90s that certain ideas of the supernatural, spirit worlds (異界, ikai) and the afterlife were "indigenous traditions" specific to Japan. By referring to Asian forms of belief and ideas of gods that go beyond Japan, Japanese society should be able to return to spiritual Asian principles that have been displaced by Western thinking. This reconsideration promises a kind of recovery or "healing" experience (癒 し, iyashi) from the stressful situations of modern, alienated life. Shimazono identifies Umehara Takeshi , Kamata Tōji , and others as intellectual representatives of this movement . a. These ideas also have an influence on the Japanese art and literature scene and can be recognized by the increasing number of new publications in the field of advisory literature, publications on yoga philosophy and Zen Buddhism or religious-esoteric books by J-Bungaku .

literature

Important representatives of the Nihonjinron

  • Berque, Augustin : Le sauvage et l'artifice: Les Japonais devant la nature . Gallimard Paris, 1986.
  • Doi, Takeo : Amae - freedom in security. On the structure of the Japanese psyche. Translated from the American by Helga Herborth, Frankfurt Suhrkamp 1982, ISBN 3-518-11128-0 (Original: Amae no kōzō ( 「甘 え」 の 構造 ). Tokyo, Japan: Kōdansha, Tokyo 1974)
  • Herrigel, Eugen : Zen in the Art of Archery , Droemer 2010, ISBN 3-426-29121-5
  • Kuki, Shūzō ( 九 鬼 周 造 ): Iki no kōzō 「い き」 の 構造 , 1930 English tr. An Essay on Japanese Taste: The Structure of 'Iki' . John Clark; Sydney, Power Publications, 1996.
  • Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology . 1937. Kokutai no hongi 國體 の 本義 . tr. as Kokutai no hongi. Cardinal principles of the national entity of Japan, Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1949.
  • Mishima, Yukio : Bunka Bōeiron ( 文化 防衛 論 , A Defense of Culture). Tokyo, Japan: Shinchōsha, 1969.
  • Murakami, Yasusuke ( 村上 泰 亮 ), Kumon Shunpei ( 公文 俊平 ), Satō Seizaburō ( 佐藤 誠 三郎 ): Bunka toshite no ie-shakai ( 文明 と し て の イ エ 社会 ). Tokyo Chūō Kōronsha, 1979.
  • Nishida, Kitarō : Nihon Bunka no mondai ( 日本 文化 の 問題 ). Tokyo, 1940.
  • Benedict, Ruth : The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture . Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1946
  • Nakane, Chie : The structure of the Japanese society ( タ テ 社会 の 人間 関係 ), English Japanese Society , translated from English by JMSpannagel and HHSpannagel, Frankfurt Suhrkamp 1985, ISBN 3-518-11204-X
  • Reischauer, Edwin O .: The Japanese . Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1978.
  • Singer, Kurt : mirror, sword and precious stone. Structures of Japanese Life. Translated from English by Wolfgang Wilhelm, Frankfurt Suhrkamp, ​​1991, ISBN 3-518-11445-X
  • Izaya Ben-Dasan, ('translated' by Yamamoto Shichihei 山 本 七 平 ): Nihonkyō ni tsuite ( 日本 教 に つ い て ), Tokyo, Bungei Shunjū, 1972
  • Tsunoda, Tadanobu ( 角 田忠信 ). 1978. Nihonjin no Nō ( 日本人 の 脳 - 脳 の 働 き と 東西 の 文化 , The Japanese brain). Tokyo, Japan: Taishūkan Shoten ISBN 4-469-21068-4 .
  • Takie Sugiyama Lebra: The Japanese Self in Cultural Logic , University of Hawaiʻi Press, Honolulu. 2004
  • Vogel, Ezra F .: Japan As Number One: Lessons for America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1978.
  • Watsuji, Tetsurō : Fūdo ( 風土 ). Tokyo, Iwanami Shoten, 1935. trans. Geoffrey Bownas, as Climate . Unesco 1962.

bibliography

  • Amino, Yoshihiko ( 網 野 善 彦 ): Muen, kugai, raku: Nihon chūsei no jiyū to heiwa ( 無 縁 ・ 公 界 ・ 楽. 日本 中 世 の 自由 と 平和 , Muen, kugai, raku: Peace and freedom in medieval Japan). Tokyo, Heibonsha, 1978.
  • Nomura Research Institute: Sengo Nihonjinron Nempyō ( 戦 後 日本人 論 年表 , Chronology of post-war Nihonjinron). Tokyo, 1979.
  • Minami Hiroshi 1980 Nihonjinron no keifu ( 日本人 論 の 系譜 ) Tokyo, Kōdansha.
  • Sugimoto, Yoshio ( 杉 本 良 夫 ) and Mouer, Ross. (Eds.) 1982 Nihonjinron ni kansuru 12 shō ( 日本人 論 に 関 す る 12 章 ) Tokyo, Gakuyō Shobō
  • Sugimoto, Yoshio and Mouer, Ross. 1982 Nihonjin wa 「Nihonteki」 ka ( 日本人 は 「日本 的」 か ) Tokyo, Tōyō Keizai Shimpōsha
  • Kawamura, Nozomu ( 河村 望 ) 1982 Nihonbunkaron no Shūhen ( 日本 文化 論 の 周 辺 , The Ambiance of Japanese Culture Theory), Tokyo: Ningen no Kagakusha
  • Sugimoto, Yoshio 1983 Chō-kanri Nippon ( 超 管理 ニ ッ ボ ン , Nippon.The Hyper-Control Archipelago) Tokyo, Kōbunsha.
  • Gill, Robin 1984 Omoshiro Hikaku-bunka-kō ( お も し ろ 比較 文化 考 ) Tokyo, Kirihara Shoten.
  • Gill, Robin 1985 Han-nihonjinron ( 反 日本人 論 ) Tokyo, Kōsakusha.
  • Gill, Robin 1985 Nihonjinron Refueling ( 日本人 論 探 険 ) Tokyo, TBS Britannica.
  • Mouer, Ross & Sugimoto, Yoshio, Images of Japanese Society , London: Routledge, 1986
  • Dale, Peter N. 1986. The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness Oxford, London. Nissan Institute, Croom Helm.
  • Befu, Harumi 1987 Ideorogī toshite no nihonjinron ( イ デ オ ロ ギ ー と し て の 日本人 論 , Nihonjinron as an ideology). Tokyo, Japan: Shisō no Kagakusha.
  • Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Irmela : The end of the exotic Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, ​​1988
  • Aoki Tamotsu Bunka no hiteisei 1988 ( 文化 の 否定性 ) Tokyo, Chūō Kōronsha
  • Van Wolferen, Karel . 1989. The Enigma of Japanese power . Westminster, MD: button.
  • Sugimoto, Yoshio & Ross Mouer (eds.) 1989 Constructs for Understanding Japan , Kegan Paul International, London and New York.
  • Amino Yoshihiko, Nihonron no shiza ( 日本 論 の 視 座 ) Tokyo, Shōgakkan
  • Aoki, Tamotsu 1990. 'Nihonbunkaron' no Hen'yô ( 「日本 文化 論」 の 変 容 , Phases of Theories of Japanese Culture in transition). Tokyo, Japan: Chūō Kōron Shinsha.
  • Yoshino, Kosaku. 1992. Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary Japan: A Sociological Inquiry . London, UK: Routledge.
  • Sugimoto Yoshio 1993 Nihonjin o yameru hōhō , Tokyo, Chikuma Bunko.
  • Dale, Peter N. 1994 Nipponologies (Nihon-ron. Nihon-shugi) , in Augustin Berque (ed.) Dictionnaire de la civilization japonaise . Hazan, Paris pp. 355-6.
  • Sugimoto, Yoshio and Mouer, Ross. 1995. Nihonjinron no Hōteishiki ( 日本人 論 の 方程式 , the Equation of Nihonjinron). Tokyo, Japan: Chikuma Shobō
  • Mazzei, Franco, 1997. Japanese Particularism and the Crisis of Western Modernity , Università Ca 'Foscari, Venice.
  • Burns, Susan L., 2003 Before the Nation - Kokugaku and the Imagining of Community in Early Modern Japan , Duke University Press, Durham, London.
  • Gill, Robin 2004 Orientalism & Occidentalism Florida, Paraverse Press.
  • Inken Prohl (2000): The 'Spiritual Intellectuals' and the New Age in Japan. Hamburg: Society for Nature and Ethnology of East Asia eV Volume 133. ISBN 978-3928463683
  • Lisette Gebhardt (2001): Japan's New Spirituality. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-04398-9 (Japanese translation: (2013) Gendai Nihon no supirichuaritî - Bungaku shisô ni miru shinreisei bunka. 現代 日本 の ス ピ リ リ チ ュ ア リ テ ィ - 文学 ・ 思想 に み idet 新. Japanese translated from Haka and Ins Asukai Masatomo. Tôkyô: Iwanami shoten, 368 pages.)
  • Susumu Shimazono (1999): "'New age movement' or 'New Spirituality Movements and Culture?'" , In: Social Compass, 46 (2), 1999, pages 121-133.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Lisette Gebhardt (2001): “Report from a research on the 'intellectual ikai' of contemporary Japan. Starting with the ghosts and their world "
  2. ↑ a b c DIJ Cultural Studies Workshop (1997): "The Return to 'Asian Spirituality'"