Another Way of Modernization and Sociology?: A Critical Assessment of the "Japanistic Sociology" in the 1920s and the ‘30s

During the late 1920s and the early ‘30s there was a movement among the Japanese sociologists to establish the "Japanistic sociology" that should differ from the western sociology.

Concerning the social & international context in which this movement emerged, three points should be mentioned at least. First, in the 1920s social inequality and social conflict were more clearly recognized than before in Japan. In 1919 the Japanese Ministry of the Interior established the "social" section for social policies. There also arose a "social science" movement among the university students in the early 1920s. This was strongly affected by the Marx-Leninism, and therefore oppressed soon. Many Japanese sociologists tried to separate sociology from this kind of "social science".

Secondly, the political orthodoxy in Japan shifted its orientation gradually from the westernization to the asianism. The Japanese proposal for the racial equality was rejected at the Paris Peace Conference (1919). And the new Immigration Act of USA (1924) raised antipathy among the Japanese. These experiences made them to seek another way of modernization which they had equated simply with westernization until then.

Thirdly, after the brutal and bloody suppression of the Samil (March 1) Movement (1919), the Japanese Governor General of Korea changed its colonial policy from "Budan" (hard power) to "Bunka" (soft power). Also, the Japanese government tried to camouflage its colonial domination in Manshukuo (established in 1932) with the ideology of "mutual harmony among the 5 peoples (Gozoku-Kyowa)".

It was in this social & international context that the movement for the "Japanistic sociology" emerged. What was it? What kind of sociological theory can we make today from this history? This presentation considers these questions.