ABSTRACT
Social scientists in Japan tend to regard Japanese modernization as atypical or distorted compared with that of the West. It is true that the development of capitalism in Japan did not completely transcend traditional community structures such as the household and village. Furthermore, the Japanese have a communal religious ethos not found in the West. Therefore in Japan the development of capitalism did not encourage individualism and privatization but rather collectivism and socialization. Within the emperor system, which is the context of Japanese modernization, we can observe the simultaneous creation of tradition.
