ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 showed that the dominant interpretation of humanitarian values and the practice arises from the socio-cultural characteristics of Western countries, where the concepts and theories of humanitarianism were first developed. One of the significant characteristics of Western humanitarianism exists in the global character based on the universal nature of humanitarian values and in the recent inclusion of the universal human rights idea. It fosters questions around whether the Japanese share ideas about humanity (humanitarian values) and universality and whether they put these ideas into practice. Also, it raises the question of whether Japanese humanitarian ideas hold unique features that stem from cultural origins and social practices that are specific to Japan. When considering the distinctive characteristics of Japanese society and social practice, it appears that Japanese humanitarian ideas contain several distinctive elements. Hence, an exploration of the historical and cultural development of humanitarian ideas in Japan is required in this study. It needs to consider the Japanese social structure in order to fully understand Japanese moral ideals, ethics and the social practices in their cultural contexts.
