Geoff,
<<Stitch, I'm skeptical of the argument that xenophobia underlies Japanese protectionism.>>
To understand Japan's xenophobic ways really requires an understanding of their history.
I am going to make an attempt at a very abbreviated history of Japan to explain my thesis of xenophobia currents in that country. In prehistory Japan was settled by hunter/gatherers. The first evidence of communal living is dated at around 13,000 bc, and is known as the Jomon period which lasted for approximately 10,000 years. Then around 300 bc a period known as Yayoi emerged, influenced by new arrivals of immigrants from China and Korea who brought with them rice growing and metal work.
Chinese Wei Dynasty documents, circa 300 bc, refer to Japan as an eastern uncivilized island occupied by a war like people. One theory holds that immigration to Japan from China accelerated during the Han dynasty, during which new technologies were brought to Japan.
A theory holds that Japan was invaded by Mongolians around the 3-4th century AD, subjugating the Yayoi rice growers. The horsemen conquered the central Japan and established a nation incorporating the indigenous clans as a United Clans of Japan, sitting at the top as the "Imperial Court". As the conquerors had horses, iron making technology, communication with the
continent through the Korean Peninsula and other advantages over the natives clans, the whole process went on without much conflict. They were superior militarily and culturally to the rice farming Yayoi population. Thus began a period called the Yamato, marked by the first emergence of a national identity.
In the 6th century AD written language and Confucianism was first brought to Japan from China. In 538 Bhuddism was introduced by Baekje Koreans who were escaping from a North Korean tribe known as the Kokuryo. In 588 AD the first Bhuddist temple was built In addition this wave of Korean immigration brought with it smelting, weaving, road construction, ceramics, and paper making. In the 6th century AD civil leadership was largely vested in Empress Suiko and her regent Shotoku Taishi. The latter wrote the first constitution incorporating 17 articles which included the admonition to respect Bhudda and the local gods, thus eliminating religious conflict. Sho-Toku-Taishi also had the effrontery to write and dispatch a letter to the Emperor of China saying in it: "Greetings from the land of the rising sun to the land of the setting sun, are you well?" for it was at this time that Kanji, the Chinese system of ideographs was introduced.
In 712 AD the first history book in the Japanese language using Chinese ideographs was written, based on the passing down over the centuries of a rich oral history. Again, the idea of this book was imported from China where scholars had long been recording their own history.
To learn the Chinese civilization deeper and faster, the Japanese government of the eighth century started sending selected young men to China on regular basis. At that time, China was under the long rules of Tun Dynasty, which was prosperous and expanded its territories over the vast steppes of central Asia and reaching close to India. It had trade routes established with the remnant of the Roman Empire and the Islamic sphere of influence in Central Asia and the middle-east.
One of these young men was Ko-Bo-Daishi a bright Buddhist monk who was sent to China to study the latest Buddhism sutra of the day. (China was then considered the center of excellence for Buddhism studies.) Ko-Bo-Daishi returned and became the founder of a new school of Esoteric Buddhism,
had a great power over the government, built a lot of temples, engineered an earth-filled dam for irrigation, developed new medicines, cured the sick and invented kana, Japanese phonetic characters leading to the popularization of education and literacy Selectively Japan accepted ideas and technologies from China through books and occasional refugees who sought asylum from the revolutions in the continent.
From then until the twelfth century AD there were periods of actively seeking out new ideas and technologies from the mainland, followed by periods of isolation and assimilation. Several ideas and technologies made their way to Japan including the cultivation of mulberry trees for silk and paper making (these grew well in the mountainous regions whereas rice cultivation was only possible in approximately 20% of the land due to the topography), new mining technologies (as silver and copper sources were discovered on the island), architecture, and medicines. By the start of the 10th century there had arisen an aristocracy, centered in Kyoto, and primarily concerned with manners of religion, poetry, and other aesthetics. In the meantime great farmer clans rose in strength throughout the hinterlands. These were the familial cultivators of rice. By the end of the tenth century, all the flood plains of major rivers in the Honshu island found rice farming under the self control of the local clans. Rice was power and wealth. The real political power started to change hands from the aristocrats in Kyoto to the armed farmer clans in the countryside. Unlike the aristocrats in Kyoto, the farming clans were totally self sufficient. Warlike they maintained armed forces, and waged war on one another, primarily over the occupation of precious land to grow more rice. Out of this movement emerged the ways of the Samurai. Thus the middle ages of Japan began, with power flowing to and fro on the wings of constant feuds while Kyoto became the religious and cultural center of Japan. This feudal system lasted until the mid 19th century during which Japan was largely insular and estranged from other nations and influences.
When the Western-China trade emerged in the 17th century and grew in importance those countries that gave any attention to Japan, mostly Dutch and Chinese, found their emissaries confined to Nagasaki. This didn't change until two hundred years later when Perry arrived in 1853 with his gunboat diplomacy forcing the Japanese to open trade. (The Japanese acceded, believing it was better to ally with the Americans then face the threat from China alone.
1868 marks the beginning of the Meiji period whence Japan makes the true transition to a nation-state. Official policy is to enrich Japan through imperialism and grow a strong military. Interestingly, while gun powder was known of in Japan by way of China, it was in 1553 that the Japanese first learned about modern armament when some Portuguese soldiers were shipwrecked on their shores.
At this point I won't delve into the militarism of the Meiji period and the consequences that led to World War II. The post war recovery of Japan earmarked by a new wave of imported ideas (such as the transistor and Deming's TQM) is fairly well understood.
Here I want to conclude with a point. Throughout Japan's history that Island nation has assimilated most of its ideas, tapping other cultures. Japan's adaptability to new ideas and ,in fact, its ability to improve on many of them is very well known. Today's preoccupation in Japan by the young people with western pop culture is little different. But at the level of the centers of power, and among the decision makers and influencers, Japan is what it always was. Insular, xenophobic, and racially biased. The assimilation of ideas has nothing to do with the other. While it is a paradox, so has it always been.
Best,
Stitch |
