Artikel

Het Japans marxisme en de zelfanalyse van de kapitalistische moderniteit tijdens de vooroorlogse periode

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Samenvatting

How should the Japanese transition towards capitalism be conceptualized? Debates being waged amongst Japanese Marxists since the interwar years, stemming from the original transition debate between the Kōza-ha en Rōnō-ha schools of thought. Japanese capitalism, due to its own unique historical emergence, cannot but be viewed as an epochal rupture casting away the feudal social fabric of society since the 1860s and 1870s. But Japanese Marxists vehemently disagree with each other how to analyze, interpret and represent this rupture. The contradictions of Japanese modernity are at the same time very similar and dissimilar compared to the European experiences. What was the exact economic, political and ideological nature of the Meiji Restauration? To what extent did Japanese capitalism eliminate vestiges of pre-modern social practices before the Second World War? How did the pre-modern ideological constellations relate to a capitalist economic dynamic? The Kōza-Rōnō debate and its ensuing derivates, ultimately, has to be understood within the framework of a century-long questioning of Japanese scholars, whether they are Marxists or not, how to approach the experienced aporia of Japanese capitalist modernity in terms of universality and particularity. These debates should also be recognized as a form of self-interrogation consisting of the repeated question what it means to be Japanese within the complex of capitalist modernity in a state of constant flux.

Hoe citeren:

Versieren, J., (2024) “Het Japans marxisme en de zelfanalyse van de kapitalistische moderniteit tijdens de vooroorlogse periode”, Ethiek en Maatschappij 26(1), 37–91. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/em.94661