Most of
Japan’s cultural history has been shaped by the
competition and interaction between imported and
indigenous elements, yielding two-tiered structure. On
examination of the
contemporary Japanese society, within the context of
s two-tiered
evolution of Japanese culture, the structure of the
current society appears to fall within the last of three
stages in
modern Japanese history.
- The first stage,
corresponding loosely to the nineteenth century, was
in essence a preparatory phase, Today scholars
recognize that the industrial development of the
Meiji era (1868-1912) was possible only became
trade and industry had made considerable progress in
the
Edo period (1603-1868)
- Stage two corresponds
roughly to the first half of the twentieth century,
that is, from the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 to
the transitional years immediately after
World War II. This stage generated a number of
basic anomalies. Enhancing the power of the private
sector should have been one of the aims of
modernization. As in other undeveloped countries the
bureaucracy guided industrial development and
educational reform from the top down, but in Japan
the government’s effort to
build Japan into a rich and militarily powerful
country strengthened the power of the state and
held back private sector.
- The third and concluding stage
of the modernization process got under way after the
setback of the war and continues today. In a sense
we can see the ongoing
economic and technological friction between Japan
and the countries of the West as a rehashing of
the wartime conflicts on a different plane.
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