The Study Of Liberalism Development And Influence In Japan After The Meiji Restoration

Liberalism has long been the mainstream ideology of western bourgeois.It not only dominates political thoughts,but also affects political activities of the western world.The whole western political system in other words,has been built on and constraint by the principle of liberalism.The period of liberalism development in Japan can be divided into four phases,that is,Spreading Phase,Transition&Obstruction Phase,Renaissance Phase,Flourish&Transmutation Phase.This paper analyzes the performance and influence of liberalism in different phase while taking the evolution of liberalism in Japan as the main clue.Phase ?,Spreading Phase.Liberalism began to spread ovr Japan.Foreign scholars represented by Fukuzawa Yukichi?Nakamura Masano?Chomin Nakae and Ueki Emori,began to approach and learn about bourgeois liberal ideology from west around Meiji Restoration.They launched a vast propaganda campaign of freedom and equality idea to Japanese society.After the enlightenment by early thinkers,liberalism left its positive impression on Japan.First of all,liberalism,which was the politicalthought of the rising bourgeois class,frosted Japanese nationality and helped shaped modern Japanese citizen.Secondly,under the influence of freedom and equality idea,Japanese citizen began to realize their civil rights and criticize feudal hierarchy.Eventually freedom and equality idea,which acted as a theoretic weapon,promoted freedom and civil rights movements.Phase ?,Transition&Obstruction Phase.Liberalism began to divert and then was obstructed.This chapter focuses on the collective transition of thinkers in Meiji era and the obstruction of liberalism by militarism.The Meiji thinkers,represented by Fukuzawa Yukichi,Kato Hiroyuki,Mori Arinori,at the beginning were liberalists who advocated freedom and equality idea,but their thoughts shifted from civil rights to nation rights,thus falling into aggressive nationalism.The shift of thoughts by Fukuzawa Yukichi,Kato Hiroyuki strongly demonstrated that individual freedom was nothing more than a tool and a way to achieve national freedom,rather than an ultimate pursuit of value.They treated liberalism in the respective of instrumental rationality but ignored its value rationality.The shift can be accounted for by several reasons,of which there was great colonial pressure outside,and inside political culture and bourgeois power was very weak.The shift marked the retreat of liberalism and meanwhile nationalism became the mainstream ideology of dominant class in late Meji era.Until Showa era,militarists and fascists came to power and cut off the lifeline of liberalism in Japan.Militarists suppressed many progressive socialists,liberalists and anarchists brutally in the name of Chian Iji Ho and by the hand of Tokubetsu Koto Keisatsu,making Japan break away from liberalism and fall into Dark Floor Period.The development of liberalism was thoroughly obstructed.With the fading of liberalism idea and rising of extreme nationalism,Japan was lured on to invasion at last.Phase ?,Renaissance Phase.Liberalism came back to Japan after World War II.The United States democratized Japan on the needs of national interest and strategy since the surrender of Japan in the war.The United States with the guidance of liberalism and in the interests of itself,has carried out a comprehensive transformation of Japan in order to establish a liberal government.Liberal intellectuals in post war criticized Japan's national invasion policy,and also regretted openly for their inability in insisting on justice and resisting dictatorship by militarists and protesting against invasion.The intellectuals formed a Regret Community,of which Masao Maruyama?otsuka Hisao?kawashima were important representatives.They believed that it was a pressing matter of the moment for Japan to learn Modern freedom from the start,and it was also a critical task to create subject awareness of modern citizen.Besides,these intellectuals played an important role in supporting peace constitution and struggling against US-Japan security treaty.But since the struggle was frustrated,conservatives has taken over overwhelmingly.They controlled the public voice and threatened the ideology,then liberalists retreated and tended to be more conservative.Phase ?,Flourish&Transmutation Phase.Neoliberalism flourished and transmutated in Japan.In the 1980s,Japan was influenced by the world economic structure and Western conservatism political thinkers.It began to accept and embrace neoliberalism.The neoliberalism reforms experienced post-war finals by Nakasone Yasuhiro,six major reforms by Hashimoto cabinet,reforms without forbidden zone by Koizumi Cabine and the economic reform three arrows by Andouble carbine,also known as Abenomics.A serial of neoliberalism reforms did not bring about freedom and flourish,but enlarging gap between the poor and the rich and accumulative social problems.Then neoconservatism came in against negative effect caused by neoliberalism.Japan ended up in a combination with neoliberalism in economy and neoconservatism in polity.The combination helped change Japan from an economic giant into a political giant,and it also accelerated the process of Japan's political right deviation.Besides,Japan was also one of liberalism origins for China.In the effort of Kang Youwei,Liang Qichao and other studying-in-Japan elites,liberalism idea prevailing in Japan was spread to China,producing a profound effect on Chinese modern society.Despite current liberalism idea includes some positive components,in essence,it is a theory system explaining international finance monopolistic capital spreading all over the world.Washington Consensus,which is controlled by the United States,is a finished state of neoliberalism,and also a type of neoimperialism.It is an economic paradigm and a plotical dogmas and above all an ideology of international monopolistic captalism.Neoliberalism acts in the name of free market and free trade,but in fact as a tool and an invisible wear for capitalists to exploit masses.Washington Consensus,with its class essence and political purpose exposed,has been rejected and criticized by all countries while China's development idea,also known as Beijing Consensus,which transcends neoliberalism,has been accepted as a more scientific development method.In ideology field,socialism is countered by liberalism in a long run,so it is suggested that we should be aware of neoliberalism and get rid of it in the future reforms and development.