Is Japan a Civilization Sui Generis?

The question to be considered is a twofold one: can we speak of Japan as a civilization among others, and if so, must we allow for specific features that set it apart from more typical cases? A brief survey of alternative approaches to civilizational theory serves to clarify the conceptual background to both issues. The starting point most suitable to present purposes can be found in the writings of Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss: they refer to civilizations as families of societies, but Mauss also hints at the possibility of societies “singularizing themselves” within a broader civilizational field, and thus developing into autonomous variants of a shared civilizational pattern. This model seems applicable to the relationship between China and Japan. A Chinese civilizational framework prevailed throughout the East Asian region, but the Japanese version of it was distinctive enough to be regarded as a civilization sui generis. Cultural and political models of order were central to the Chinese traditions that spread to the rest of the region; they underwent a more significant adaptive change in Japan than elsewhere. On the Japanese side, the seventh-century transformation—which involved a mutual adjustment of imported models and indigenous traditions—gave rise to a framework within which further variations on Chinese themes could take place. This historical experience left a legacy that was to prove crucial to the accelerated modern transformation after 1968.1