Japanese spirit, Western economics: the continuing salience of economic nationalism in Japan

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Alice Amsden, Asia's Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrializations (Oxford University Press, 1989), ch. 6. Robert Wade, ‘Japan, the World Bank, and the Art of Paradigm Management: The East Asian Miracle in Political Perspective’, New Left Review, Vol. 1, No. 217 (1996), pp. 3–36. Susan Pharr has used the term to refer to Japanese resistance to the demands of its trade partners for market access. See ‘Officials’ misconduct and public distrust: Japan and the trilateral democracies', in: Susan J. Pharr & Robert D. Putnam (eds), Disaffected Democracies: What's Troubling the Trilateral Countries? (Princeton University Press, 2000), p. 178. Frank Gibney, ‘Introduction’, in: Frank Gibney (ed.), Unlocking the Bureaucrat's Kingdom: Deregulation and the Japanese Economy (Brookings Institution Press, 1998), p. 11. Jeffrey Henderson, ‘Uneven Crises: Institutional Foundations of East Asian Economic Turmoil’, Economy and Society, Vol. 28, No. 3 (1999), pp. 327–68; and Linda Weiss, ‘State Power and the Asian Crisis’, New Political Economy, Vol. 4, No. 3 (1999), pp. 317–42. Eisuke Sakakibara, ‘Reform, Japanese‐style’, in: Gibney, Unlocking the Bureaucrat's Kingdom, pp. 79–88; and Ronald P. Dore, Stock Market Capitalism—Welfare Capitalism: Japan and Germany Versus the Anglo‐Saxons (Oxford University Press, 2000). George T. Crane, ‘Imagining the Economic Nation: Globalisation in China’, New Political Economy, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1999), pp. 215–32; Patricia Goff, ‘Invisible Borders: Economic Liberalization and National Identity’, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 4 (2000), pp. 533–62; Stephen Shulman, ‘National Sources of International Economic Integration’, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 3 (2000), pp. 365–90; Rawi Abdelal, National Purpose in the World Economy (Cornell University Press, 2001); Eric Helleiner, ‘Economic Nationalism as a Challenge to Economic Liberalism? Lessons from the 19th Century’, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 3 (2002), pp. 307–29; and Andreas Pickel, ‘Explaining, and Explaining with, Economic Nationalism’, Nations and Nationalism, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2003), pp. 105–27. Ronald Dore gives an excellent overview of this debate in his ‘Japan’s Reform Debate: Patriotic Concern or Class Interest? Or Both?', Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1999), pp. 65–89. Steven K. Vogel, Freer Markets, More Rules (Cornell University Press, 1996). Important sources on deregulation and liberalisation in Japan include Steven K. Vogel, ‘Can Japan Disengage? Winners and Losers in Japan’s Political Economy, and the Ties That Bind Them', Social Science Japan Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1999), pp. 3–21; Leonard J. Schoppa, Bargaining with Japan: What American Pressure Can and Cannot Do (Columbia University Press, 1997); Atsushi Kusano, ‘Deregulation in Japan and the Role of Naiatsu (Domestic Pressure)’, Social Science Japan Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1999), pp. 65–84; and Gibney, Unlocking the Bureaucrat's Kingdom. Vogel writes that ‘Japan’s distinctive approach to liberalization has been characterized by slow and incremental change; elaborate political bargains, typically involving compensation for the potential losers from reform; considerable efforts to prepare industry for competition; and continued bureaucratic monitoring and manipulation of the terms of competition'. Vogel, ‘Can Japan Disengage?’, p. 15. From a press conference transcript available at http://www.keidanren.or.jp/english/speech/press/2002/0107.html. Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925–1975 (Stanford University Press, 1982), pp. 17ff. Richard J. Samuels & Eric Heginbotham, ‘Mercantile Realism and Japanese Foreign Policy’, International Security, Vol. 22, No. 4 (1998), pp. 171–203. Helleiner, ‘Economic Nationalism’, p. 320. Glenn Drover & K. K. Leung, ‘Nationalism and Trade Liberalization in Quebec and Taiwan’, Pacific Affairs, Vol. 74, No. 2 (2001), pp. 205–24. Abdelal, National Purpose in the World Economy. Edward J. Lincoln, Arthritic Japan: The Slow Pace of Economic Reform (Brookings Institution Press, 2001), pp. 154–7 and passim. This view, obviously, implies acceptance not only of utilitarianism as an ethical principle but also of the basic correctness of neoclassical economics. Jeffrey Frieden & Ronald Rogowski, ‘The impact of the international economy on national politics: an analytical overview’, in: Helen V. Milner & Robert O. Keohane (eds), Internationalization and Domestic Politics (Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 25–47. Robert Gilpin, The Political Economy of International Relations (Princeton University Press, 1987), p. 31. It should be noted that, for Gilpin, economic nationalism does not rule out the pursuit of liberal economic policies; see p. 34. Meredith Woo‐Cumings, ‘Introduction: Chalmers Johnson and the Politics of Nationalism and Development’, in: Meredith Woo‐Cumings (ed.), The Developmental State (Cornell University Press, 1999), p. 6. Dore, ‘Japan’s Reform Debate', pp. 88, 75. Yamaguchi Jirô, Nihon Seiji: Saisei no Jôken (Japan's Politics: Conditions for Recovery) (Iwanami Shinsho, 2001), pp. 15ff; and Nagano Yoshinobu, Koizumi Jun'ichirô to Hara Takashi: Kôzô Kaikaku o Rekishi ni Manabu (Koizumi Junichiro and Hara Takashi: Lessons from History about Structural Reform) (Chûô Kôron Shinsha, 2002), pp. 20–5. Vogel, ‘Can Japan Disengage?’; and Steven K. Vogel, ‘When Interests Are Not Preferences: The Cautionary Tale of Japanese Consumers’, Comparative Politics, Vol. 31, No. 2 (1999), pp. 187–207. Vogel, ‘Can Japan Disengage?’, p. 9. Lincoln, Arthritic Japan. See also Iwao Nakatani, ‘A Design for Transforming the Japanese Economy’, Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 23, No. 2 (1997), pp. 399–417. Dore traces the history of these calls: Dore, ‘Japan’s Reform Debate'. For a selection of proposals that basically fit within this framework, see, for instance, Itô Takatoshi, Shôhisha Jûshi no Keizaigaku: Kisei Kanwa wa Naze Hitsuyô Ka (Economics as If Consumers Mattered: Why Is Deregulation Necessary?) (Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 1992); Keidanren, Jiyû—Tômei—Kôsei Na Shijô Keizai o Mezashite: Kisei Kanwa no Tame no Teigen (Towards a Liberal, Transparent, Fair Market Economy: A Proposal for Regulatory Loosening) (Keidanren, 1992); Yashiro Naohiro (ed.), Shijô Jûshi no Kyôiku Kaikaku (Educational Reform That Emphasises the Market) (Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 1999); and Yashiro Naohiro, ‘Shakaiteki Kisei wa Naze Hitsuyô Ka’ (Why Is Social Regulation Necessary?), in: Shakaiteki Kisei no Keizai Bunseki (Economic Analysis of Social Regulation) (Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 2000). Yasuo Kawabata, ‘“Sutajiamu no Nekkyô no Hazama Kara,” Dai Ikkai: “Nihon to Nihonjin” ni Totte no Wârudo Kappu’ (From the Wild, Packed Stadium, Part One: What the World Cup Means for Japan and the Japanese), available from http://www.sportsnavi.com/column/article/ZZZUR2HFZID.html; and Aviad E. Raz, Riding the Black Ship: Japan and Tokyo Disneyland (Harvard University Asia Center, 1999). Koichi Iwabuchi, Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism (Duke University Press, 2002), p. 4. Richard J. Samuels, Machiavelli's Children: Leaders and Their Legacies in Italy and Japan (Cornell University Press, 2003), p. 85. William W. Grimes, ‘Internationalization as Insulation: Dilemmas of the Yen’, The Japanese Economy, Vol. 28, No. 4 (2000), pp. 46–75; and ‘Internationalization of the Yen and the new politics of monetary insulation’, in: Jonathan Kirshner (ed.), Monetary Orders: Ambiguous Economics, Ubiquitous Politics (Cornell University Press, 2003), pp. 172–94. Schoppa, Bargaining with Japan; and Kusano, ‘Deregulation in Japan’. Leon Hollerman, ‘Whither deregulation? An epilogue to Japan’s industrial policy', in: Gibney, Unlocking the Bureaucrat's Kingdom, p. 265. Edward J. Lincoln, ‘Deregulation in Japan and the United States: a study in contrasts’, in: ibid., p. 67. Dore, ‘Japan’s Reform Debate', pp. 75–6. For examples of this kind of thinking with respect to Japan's ‘Big Bang’ financial sector reforms, see Peter Hartcher, The Ministry: How Japan's Most Powerful Institution Endangers World Markets (Harvard Business School Press, 1998), pp. 250–5. The quotation from Sakakibara is on p. 252. It was renamed the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in the 2001 reorganisation of the ministerial structure. ‘Kisei Kanwa Suishinshô ni Henshin’, Nikkei Business, 24 October 1994. The quotation is on p. 16. Hayano Toru, ‘Farewell to “Tora‐San’s world”', Asahi Shinbun, 30 July 2001. For instance, Sakaiya Taichi, former Director‐General of the Economic Planning Agency and a reformer, stated in an interview that ‘the people who will suffer the most pain are workers of small businesses and self‐employed people’. See ibid. Hayano Toru, ‘Voter manipulation, past and present’, Asahi Shinbun, 29 June 2001. George T. Crane, ‘Economic Nationalism: Bringing the Nation Back In’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 27, No. 1 (1998), pp. 55–76; and Helleiner, ‘Economic Nationalism’. Abdelal, National Purpose in the World Economy. The title of a popular Japanese television variety programme presented by Beat Takeshi, in which Japanese and foreigners argue over the good and bad points of life in Japan. The title might be translated as ‘Hey, you Japanese, this place is screwed up!’ David L. McConnell, Importing Diversity: Inside Japan's JET Program (University of California Press, 2000), p. 16. Ibid., p. 24. Ibid., pp. 17–18. Ibid., p. 30. Ivan P. Hall, Cartels of the Mind: Japan's Intellectual Closed Shop (W.W. Norton, 1998), p. 7. Mayumi Itoh, Globalization of Japan: Japanese Sakoku Mentality and U.S. Efforts to Open Japan (St. Martin's Press, 2000), p. 5. Ibid. Ibid., p. 15. Ibid., p. 7. McConnell, Importing Diversity, p. ix. Ibid. David Leheny, The Rules of Play: National Identity and the Shaping of Japanese Leisure (Cornell University Press, 2003). The quotations are from pp. 151 and 114. Gibney, ‘Introduction’, p. 14. Lincoln, ‘Deregulation in Japan and the United States’, pp. 61–2. Vogel, ‘When Interests Are Not Preferences’. Masao Miyamoto, Straitjacket Society: An Insider's Irreverent View of Bureaucratic Japan (Kodansha International, 1995). Masao Miyamoto, ‘Deregulating Japan’s soul', in: Gibney, Unlocking the Bureaucrat's Kingdom, p. 76. Ibid., p. 77. See, for instance, Ohmae Ken'ichi, cited in Sakakibara, ‘Reform, Japanese‐style’. Amaya Naohiro, Eichi Kokkaron (Argument for a Wise Country) (PHP Kenkyûjo, 1994), pp. 208–11. Tanigaki, interviewed in Yamaguchi, Nihon Seiji; the quotation is from p. 128. Amaya makes a similar argument in Eichi Kokkaron, p. 235. Itoh, for instance, argues that the economic system had ‘become the principal symbol of national pride’ in Japan; see Itoh, Globalization of Japan, p. 14. It is not particularly relevant here that many of these aspects of Japanese culture are in fact of quite recent provenance; see Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle and, on invented traditions in Japan more generally, Stephen Vlastos (ed.), Mirror of Modernity: Invented Traditions of Modern Japan (University of California Press, 1997). Crane, ‘Imagining the Economic Nation’, p. 217. Vogel, Freer Markets, More Rules. Mary Gallagher, ‘“Reform and Openness”: Why China’s Economic Reforms have Delayed Democracy', World Politics, Vol. 54, No. 3 (2002), pp. 359–61. Additional informationNotes on contributorsDerek Hall Derek Hall, Department of Political Studies, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada K9J 7B8. Derek Hall, Department of Political Studies, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada K9J 7B8.

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