ABSTRACT
Japan, it has often been said, moved from feudalism to capitalism—to an advanced form of capitalism—in little more than a hundred years. In the process she transformed a traditional, Asian culture into a ‘modern’, predominantly Western one. Nevertheless, both these statements, broadly tenable though they are, prove on closer inspection to need qualification. Japanese feudalism and Japanese capitalism have had distinctive features that put in question some of the assumptions (derived from Western society) on which our labelling of institutions and processes is based. Moreover, it quickly appears that a cultural definition of ‘modern’ is as difficult to identify for Japan as it is for the West; in neither context can one disregard or readily disentangle the influence of tradition, which is both specific and indigenous. Hence the study of modernisation in Japan involves a study of concepts, as well as of Japanese society. It is perhaps for this reason that it appeals to scholars of many different kinds: students of history, of literature, of geography, of economics, of sociology have contributed to this volume, each writing from a different academic viewpoint, but each adding to the understanding of problems that all recognise and to some extent share.
