Ideology and Economic Activity: An International Comparison

The Japanese already had a flourishing awareness of nation at the start of the eighth century, an astonishingly early period. However, nationalism was not the only element in the ethos of the Japanese people. The ethos contained in addition important elements which can be called Confucian. There are those who also talk about Shinto, but my own view is that it is mainly the teachings of Confucianism that establish the standards on the basis of which the Japanese act. Surprisingly, the Japanese do not know a great deal about Shinto, and there are very few who go about their daily lives in a Shinto fashion. The major problem, however, lies in analysing how these two important elements in Japanese ideology — nationalism and Confucianism — actually fit together. Assuming that there exist two countries, one a pure Confucian country, and the other a nationalist Confucian country, then their secular lives (or patterns of economic activity) are likely to be very different from each other. My intention is to discuss the role of nationalism in a Confucian country using a partial differential approach, which will identify the nature of the changes in secular life resulting from the adaptation of Confucianism to nationalism. Before that, however, I want to give an overview of the many previous analyses of the ways in which various ethoses have influenced economic development in a range of countries. I will then locate my own analysis of the role played by nationalist Confucianism in Japanese history in the context of this overview. The problem is, of course, an extremely complex one, and given the current stage of research, where we cannot rely on any established theory, such a global comparative-analytical survey may be the most that we can do.