John Edward Philips explains the lessons to be learned from Japanese Studies in Africa

    If Japan did not exist, scholars in Third World Studies would have had to invent it.

    Japan is, and has been for a century, the only major non-Western society which has managed to develop industrially.  As a historical case study it can be used to test theories of what is or is not necessary for development and what is simply accidental about the nature of developed societies in the West.

    For Africa to learn from Japan it will have to have an understanding of the distinct historical experiences of Japanese society.  With such an understanding Africa could decide for itself what could be learned from Japan, what could be ignored as accidental and irrelevant, and in what areas it was already ahead of Japan.

    Were Japan not around to observe, experts in economic development would be arguing about what a non-Western developed society would be like.  In what ways would it be similar to the developed countries of the West?  How would it have resembled or even surpassed Western countries before its take-off into industrialisation?  What would it have had to borrow from the West, and how much could it have afforded to ignore?

    In many aspects of its traditional culture Japan manages to surpass traditional Western values, putting the West to shame and posing a challenge to the world.  Japanese punctuality is extreme by European or American standards.  Hard work is such a part of life that karoshi, or death from overwork, is becoming a serious social problem.  The discipline and financial honesty of the people is also one of Japan's greatest assets.  The attention to detail and fear of making mistakes has helped Japan adopt and improve on American methods of quality control, making Japanese manufactured goods the world standard in quality.  Japanese love of and respect for learning has made it one of the most literate and learned societies on earth.  Quiz shows are as popular and omnipresent on Japanese TV as violent 'cop shows' are on American.

    Of course much of modern Japanese culture has been borrowed from the West.  Little modern technology has originated in Japan.  Japanese success has come not from originating new inventions but from being the best at manufacturing other people's inventions, although the new machines were integrated into the old industries as much as being put alongside them.  The modern army and huge navy which made Japan an imperial great power of the early 20th century and a permanent member of the League of Nations council were likewise in imitation of the West.  The modern, universal and compulsory educational system was built on foreign models as well, although respect for scholars and a high literacy rate were present before.

    During the late 19th century, Japan was so bent on borrowing from the West that it was known as a "translation society" in which the major focus of education and research was on catching up with Western powers. Even the idea of becoming such a translation society is said to have come from the Egypt of Muhammad Ali.  While originality can help a nation develop, as it has the US, it obviously is not indispensable.

    Despite its borrowing from the West, Japan is still in many ways a traditional society, and was even more so in the first half of the 20th century.  Christianity is the religion of only about 1% of the Japanese people.  This minority is predominately a highly respected intellectual elite, but the fact remains that the overwhelming majority of Japanese prefer their two traditional religions; the indigenous polytheistic nature worship of Shinto and the otherworldly asceticism of Buddhism.

    The social structure is in many ways still traditional as well.  This has an influence on industrial relations, where the strong sense of belonging and "groupism" is felt.  The Japanese word usually translated as "full-time employee" (kaishain) literally means "company member".  Here is an aspect of society which Africa, which also has a strong tradition of group identity and belonging, might be able to learn from.

    Other aspects of Japanese life are even more traditional.  Although romanisation and even the official adoption of English were considered at one point, Japan has been able to modernise and even computerise with its own language and a writing system adopted from the Chinese.  There is even a special greeting used only on the telephone.  Although foreign food is becoming popular most Japanese meals are traditional.  People are comfortable eating and sleeping on mats on the floor.  Visitors must remove their shoes in residential houses and many other places as well. Some Japanese tell me they cannot relax if their shoes are still on their feet.

    Some of the aspects in which Japan resembles Western societies were not originally intended to be borrowed.  The fact that they have been adopted suggests that they are inevitable byproducts of development, rather than simply Westernisation.

    The Japanese legislature, or Diet, was not set up immediately after the Meiji government of 1868 abolished feudalism and began the industrialisation of Japan.  Rather it was found that consultation with various power centres in Japanese society became necessary.  As time went on, development created an educated middle class which demanded its say in society.  Finally in 1925 universal male suffrage was achieved.

    Likewise the emancipation of women was not one of the intentions of the modernising elite of Japan.  Feminism in Japan has of course not developed on western lines, nor is Japan a paragon of women's liberation.  But compared to the women of feudal Japan the women of today's Japan have incomparably more rights and opportunities.  Although votes for women were granted during the American occupation after World War II, today no one questions this right.

    Likewise the development of business corporations, an independent labour movement and other citizens' groups, while taking different paths from those of Western societies, has been a feature of modern Japanese life.

    Of course Japan's success has not extended to every field.  But even here there is much to learn from the failures of others.  The heavy emphasis on conformity in Japanese education and society has led to a difficulty in developing original thinking, without which Japan can only catch up with, never surpass, the West.  The same emphasis on conformity has led to great difficulty in understanding other countries.

    Japan was also ignorant of pollution when it was busy trying to catch up with the West.  By the 1950s pollution related diseases such as "minamatabyo" and "itai-itaibyo" were causing great problems  in the most industrialised parts of Japan.  Today Japan has become a world leader in pollution control technology.  Still, as the proverb says,  "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."  Japan's failure to recognise pollution as a problem until it was nearly too late is something countries trying to develop should consider today.

    But despite all that can be learned from studying Japan, the study of Japanese economic development cannot resolve one of the greatest debates in development studies, the debate between modernisation theory and underdevelopment theory.

    This is a result of the fact that history can never be an experimental science.  Japan has had much success borrowing ideas and institutions from Western civilisation, as the modernist theorists point out. But Japan has also had a very different historical development from that of African countries, even before the nineteenth century opening to the West.  Not only would it be impossible for African societies to duplicate this experience now but the effects of that experience have profound implications for interpreting Japan's success in the world today.

    Japan's most obvious historical difference with Africa lies in the period from approximately 1650 to 1850.  During the peak years of the African slave trade Japan was almost hermetically sealed from the outside world.  When Japan reopened after the visit of an American naval squadron in 1854, the relative prices of gold and silver were so different from the world market prices that much money was made by foreigners exploiting the difference.  Japan had never been underdeveloped.

    It is hard to imagine what Japan might be like today if the coastal people had been raiding the interior for captives to sell abroad, and if wealth and power were not to be obtained from fine quality craft production and education but from warfare and the export of one's neighbors to obtain weapons and luxury imports.

    Despite the impossibility of imitating Japan's historical experience, Africa could still learn much from Japan.  Development studies must not become a haven for scholars in the developed world studying those nations which have failed to develop.  It should be a field for scholars in the developing world to study those countries which have successfully developed (Europe, North America, Japan and perhaps other Asian countries as well) to see what lessons can be learned from them.  Japan devoted much energy to studying the economic history of Europe and America, both their successes and failures, for that very reason.  Africa can imitate that study for its own benefit.