Brian J. McVeigh - The Nature of the Japanese State: Rationality and Rituality

The Nature of the Japanese State

The Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies Series

Editorial Board

J. A. A. Stockwin, Nissan Professor of Modern Japanese Studies, University of Oxford and Director, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies

Teigo Yoshida, formerly Professor of the University of Tokyo, and now Professor, Obirin University, Tokyo

Frank Langdon, Professor, Institute of International Relations, University of British Columbia, Canada

Alan Rix, Professor of Japanese, The University of Queensland

Junji Banno, Professor, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo Leonard Schoppa, University of Virginia

Other titles in the series:

Educational Reform in Japan, Leonard Schoppa

The Nature of the Japanese State

Rationality and rituality

Brian J. McVeigh

First published 1998

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, 0X14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

270 Madison Ave, New York NY 10016

Transferred to Digital Printing 2007

1998 Brian J. McVeigh

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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ISBN 0415171067

Cover photograph: Orion/Camera Press

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent

FIGURES

TABLES

Japan as the new century approaches is going through a turbulent period, in which some of its most entrenched political and economic institutions and practices are being increasingly questioned. The financial crisis which occurred in the latter half of 1997 affected most of the so-called tiger economies of East and South-East Asia, and did not spare Japan. The collapse of several important Japanese financial institutions signalled not only that the system was in crisis but also that the government was no longer willing, or able, to rescue ailing institutions. The sense of crisis quickly dulled the luster of the Asian model in the eyes of the worlds media, but also concentrated minds within Japan on the task of reforming the system. The extent to which the system needed reforming remained a matter of sharp dispute, but a consensus was emerging that many entrenched practices which derived from the immediate post-war period of the economic miracle needed to be radically rethought. At the beginning of 1998, the extent and timescale of the desired revolution remained in doubt. Elements of the old regime seemed to be falling apart, but the shape of the new was still but dimly discernible.

Reading the worlds press in the aftermath of the financial crisis one could well derive the impression that East Asia (including Japan) was heading for collapse and that the world could safely direct its attention elsewhere, notably to the dynamic and successful market economies of North America and Europe. Such an impression, however, was manifestly erroneous. Japan and its surrounding region remained a zone of intense economic production and interaction, resourceful and dynamic. Though there was a financial crisis, it was far less clear that there was an economic crisis. To use a hackneyed phrase, the fundamentals of the Japanese economy remained sound. Radical reform was no doubt needed, but the occurrence of crisis made the road to that rather easier. If the world thought that the East Asian region could safely be ignored, it was likely to be in for a rude shock in a short span of years.