Consider Japan, by Economist correspondents

[p050] son, 42/-. Consider Japan. ‘Economist’ Corres- pondents. Duckworth, 15/-. For two centuries after their first experience with Westernism the feudalists of Japan pursued a policy of seclusion, understanding that wider contact with the outside world could only destroy the bases of their rule. By the end of that time, however, the conditions had been largely pre- pared for the breakdown of feudal- ism and, with the Western powers now battering on the doors, a revolu- tion from above took place which opened up the conditions for the rapid development of capitalism. Within the next few decades the basis for the spectacular rise to word industrial and political power was being laid. But ihe break with feudasism had not been hard and fase. It was, at first, capitalism wi.hout a bourgeoisie, and the nature of this transition to capitalism leit its mark through the suosequent history ot Japan, particuary in the fieid of politics. Aimough Kennedy provides a usetul record of these events, there is ithe discussion of why they happened. His interests are mainiy poutical and military or naval; the social and economic background, though not negiecied, is nandsed Witnout real understanding. One suspects that his muitary, business and journaist experience in Japan confined his contacis to those with Members of the ruung class whom he came to consider very much as English puouic - schooi - educated genuemen of ditierent pnysical appearance. Of the peasaniry and its way of life there is titue in this book, of the rapidiy-growing 2Uth cen.ury working cass even less. On the ower hand there is pienty about the governmen.ai changes and Miltary aaventures of the period. His imerpreiauon is mainiy posited on the view that ‘tundamentauy the Japanese and their nauonal traits remain unaitered’. Despre the space devoted to pouiitivs, littie lignt 1s cast on the Teiaiions between government, busi- Ness in.eresis and the Army betore 144), though he agrees that ‘industrial expansion was serving 1O encourage a new torm of imperiatism, a struggie for control of markets and of industria! raw materials’. While he is happy to see the Japanese adopt heaitny Western bau-games he evidently depiores the iniiuence of Marxism. it is therefore ditticult for him to criticise the mass repres- sions. And, while on one page he notes with approval that the iabour movement was subsequently ‘diverted into more constitutional channels’, only two pages later he speaks of the regime under which it was operating as ‘a Japanese version of Fascism’. Again, what he means by fascism here is not clear, since real analysis is lacking. 211 In the final chapter he deals briefly with Japan’s economic revival and expansion in the °50s, which he attributes to ‘a combina.ion of good fortune — arising trom international deveiopments — skittul management, hard work and readiness to face unpieasant facts’, It is at this point that the ‘Economist’ Correspondents take over. Very definite:y in their mind is a comparison be.ween the post-war experience of Japan and that of Britain. Whether tor tack of space, or lack of recognition of its importance, ilttie at.ention is paid to the- historical foundauions of the diiferences. There is tne impiied assumption that because the Japanese economy grew rapidiy in the period, British capitauism, by adop.ing similar me.nods, could have grown at the same, if not, a taster rate. At the same time, it is crear from the evidence presented in this votume that Japanese capiiaiusm has bene- fitted from some special advamages, For one thing, a number of the growth indusuries of the ’50s have sprung directiy trom the war-stimu- lated industries ot 20 years before: from range-tinders to transis.ors and cameras. Then, not ony did war desiruction, or lack of new invest- ment, sweep a way for profitable new capital formation with American assistance, but the stimuius of Korean War demand proved invalu- able. It put firms in possession of funds for new investment and fur- nished the economy as a whole with foreign exchange. The expansion was then on. There was a con- tinuous heavy build-up of the in- dustries producing means of pro- duction and a shiit of labour power from old-style unproductive activities to the new grow.h points. The home market for all kinds of products thus grew, but the heavy investment out- lays would clearly not have been possible if the whole capitalist world . economy had not been growing too. As is was, the special advantages of Japan enabled her capitalists to do rather better than any others in this period of apparently endless expanded reproduction. No doubt the outsider is struck by what seems wide, and often wild, departures from what passes for orthodoxy elsewhere —the apparent unconcern about the possibilities of inflation, for example. The ‘Econo-

[p051] 212 mist’ observer, steeped in Keynesian- type thinking, is apt to give these policy measures too much credit. He does recognise that the past period has been more favourable to profits than to wages. The obvious question is what happens as profitable oppor- tunities for the re-investment of capital diminish—and that question is tied up with the problem of markets which, with a country so dependent upon exports, means the willingness, as well as the capacity, of other countries to buy more and more Japanese goods. What has to be remembered is that Japan is inextricably part of the capitalist world economy. In terms of growth though not in income per head, she is a favoured part of it. The prospects of continued growth at the recent rate in Japan thus leads back to the prospects of world capitalism and to problems which this short book does not examine. As sup- porters of capitalism its authors err on the side of optimism, though here and there doubts break through. These books pose the question of the need for a clearer Marxist analysis of the Japanese case. Although both of them speak slight- ingly of Marxism, they are aware of the challenge from this direction. Perhaps some enterprising publisher will one day introduce to English readers some of the Japanese Marxist studies of capitalist development which have appeared since the war. - ‘TL.K. God in Russia