ABSTRACT
Explorations in the previous chapter showed the normative dimension of Japanese humanitarianism. Through the study of Japanese social structure, we discovered the type of society that defined the basis of Japanese humanitarianism. It is now necessary to study other dimensions in order to unveil both the roots and nature of current Japanese humanitarianism. In post-Second World War Japanese society, it seems that Japanese humanitarian values contained universal and relativistic features, stemming from both indigenous elements and imported ideas. As social conditions and systems played key roles in ethical decisions and practices among the Japanese before the Second World War, a further study on these influences in postWar Japanese society is crucial. The social conditions and systems that shaped ethical decisions and practice would be most clearly illustrated by the Japanese approach to assistance (policy, system, perception and attitudes). Looking at both the changes and evolution in the Japanese approach to assistance and the people’s perceptions and attitudes towards it would, more or less, reflect social conditions including domestic and international circumstances relevant to humanitarian considerations. Thus, this chapter explores the evolution of Japanese assistance policy, systems, actual practices and Japanese attitudes to assistance. This aids an understanding of the social conditions and systems that explain the nature of current Japanese humanitarianism. In so doing, it introduces the topic of humanitarian assistance carried out by the Japanese. It attempts to portray how humanitarian activities were affected by policy changes that transformed assistance systems, and what impact these had on the Japanese system of thought. As the social conditions and systems changed during two eras, the chapter looks at the evolution and changes that took place during two periods: since the end of the War up to the 1970s and since the 1980s until the present day. Exploring the evolution of state policy towards humanitarianism is especially important in that, as the previous chapter showed, a state domain has been a significant benchmark for Japanese ethical decisions and practices. Government policies, more or less, guided people’s ethical decisions and attitudes even after the emperor system was officially removed. The period after the 1980s is of particular importance in understanding social and contextual changes in addition to changes in the Japanese assistance
system. These explorations lead to an examination of which value nature (whether universalistic or relativistic in character) underpinned Japanese humanitarianism and how this nature evolved in decades before and after the 1980s.
