ABSTRACT
The Protestant ethic is regarded as the guiding spirit of Western modernity. It is said to have furnished the subjective impulse which welled forth and oriented the lives of those who forged a modern society in Western Europe and the United States of America. What was the guiding spirit of Japanese modernity, which was achieved so quickly? I believe that it was the cult of Japanese Successism (risshin-shusse-shugi) which provided the requisite subjective, inner drive.
