ABSTRACT
The 'modern' transformation of the Western world was accomplished by what has sometimes been described as the dual revolution: capitalism and democracy. The overtly repressive nature of pre-war Japan, the conceptual equivalents of the Western notion of democracy emerged in a variety of forms. Since the end of the United States occupation of Japan, it is clear that the political infrastructure of democracy is in place: universal suffrage, regular elections, and responsible cabinets. The chapter pursues the strictly Japanese dimensions of the crisis. It argues that the central post-war Japanese consensus, around economic growth, has gradually lost force as that objective has been achieved. The chapter focuses on some aspects of the warp and weft of the Japanese social fabric, whether derived from the militaristic, authoritarian past or more recently conceived which predispose the society towards an even finer mesh of constraint and control.
