ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Japan's transition from a traditional to modern society. The characteristics of traditional and modern societies are inherently opposed to one another. Traditional societies focus on corporate groups, personal ties, and fixed hierarchies (Jowitt 1992). In feudal Japan the corporate group was one's feudal class. The chapter illustrates some of the necessary conditions for the creation of a unified, modern state. It explores why Japan was able to resist Western colonization and instead build its own imperial state. The chapter details some of the important decisions Japan made as it worked toward becoming an economically developed, unified democracy. It explores the effects of these decisions on the postwar settlement. Ultimately, Japan's first experiment with democracy failed due to the competing interests and growing strength of the military in the 1920s and 1930s. Japan's experience with democracy would prove quite valuable to the Allied powers after the war, however, as it attempted to consolidate democracy in the defeated nation.
