ABSTRACT
Kawakami Hajime was a unique figure in Japanese economic thought before 1945. Starting as a scholar with a nationalist tendency in social policy, he acquired popularity through his talented contributions to journals and newspapers. His Bimbō Monogatari (Tale of Poverty) awoke the Japanese public to the problem of modern poverty and was a turning point for a nation that had identified itself with the industrialization promoted by the Meiji state. After this publication, he turned to Marxism under the impact of the Russian Revolution. At last, he got imprisoned for his commitment to the illegal communist party of Japan. This chapter deals with his mental problem with egoism and altruism concerning his troublesome adoption of Marxism. We can interpret Kawakami’s adherence to this mental problem as a typical presentation of the sentiment of intellectuals that had grown up under an authoritarian developmentalist state.
