Masako Gavin

National moral education: Abe Iso's views on education

Masako Gavin — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:11:45 PST

Abe Isō, one of the most eminent intellectuals of the Meiji era (1868-1912) and a professor at Tokyo Senmon Gakkō (the present Waseda University), believed in a liberal approach to education and opposed the trend towards state-oriented education and the egocentric approach that superseded it. His views are important to an understanding of educational issues during this pivotal period but have been largely ignored by those who have studied the legacies of his vast and diverse intellectual output. This paper studies his views on education, and in particular, his response to tokuiku (the national moral teaching).

Abe Isoo and Kawakami Hajime in interwar Japan - Economic reform or revolution?

Masako Gavin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:39:55 PST

This article explores the views of two eminent professors of economics, Abe Isoo (1865-1949) and Kawakami Hajime (1879-1946), regarding their socialist economic theories for easing poverty in Japan during the interwar years (1918-1939). Prior to this period, Abe believed the cure to capitalism's ills lay in a combination of socialist economic reforms (sangyô demokurashii) and individual spiritual refinement. Kawakami, at that time a bourgeois economist, prioritised the spiritual revolution of the rich over any socialist-type economic reform. Thus, although convinced of the need for a different approach to eradicating poverty, they nevertheless agreed in the need for gradual change rather than radical reform (Gavin East Asia An International Quarterly 24:1, 30). The year 1928 marked a significant turning point both for Japanese social movements and in the lives of Abe and Kawakami. That year heralded Japan's first national election under the new Universal Male Suffrage Law, and saw the police exercise their extended authority as they undertook a nationwide round-up of students and intellectuals suspected of left-wing tendencies (the March 15 Incident). Also in that year, Abe and Kawakami resigned from academic posts to dedicate themselves to alleviating the privations of the working class. Abe, by then well known as the father of Japanese socialism and as a Christian pacifist, became a symbolic figure for Japan's working class parties, although he later came to support the government during WWII. Kawakami, who was forced to resign from his post during the round-up, "washed his hands of bourgeois economics", became a prominent spokesman for Marxism in Japan ([28], xi, pp. 76, 169). This article will reveal that both Abe and Kawakami's social and economic theories changed during the interwar period, so that Abe came to see imperial sovereignty as crucial to socialist economic reform, while Kawakami came to see it as a minion of the capitalists and advocated institutional and political revolution.

Anti-Japanese sentiment and the responses of two Meiji intellectuals

Masako Gavin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:39:54 PST

Extract:

After the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), overpopulation and unemployment became pressing issues in Japan. Many intellectuals were concerned about the social and economic hardships caused by these “new” problems, and endeavoured to remedy them through emigration. Hawai’i and California became popular destinations for Japanese emigrants, both being on the Pacific Rim, with their warm climates and good job opportunities.

Konnichiwa from Australia

Masako Gavin et al. — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:03:13 PST

Extract:

Although many Japanese grammar books are available to Australian students, we have found that there are only a few thorough workbooks which provide communicative and written activities to reinforce grammar elements covered in class.

Konnichiwa from Australia has been prepared to supplement this need and this is volume one to four. Although primarily designed for 1st and 2nd year university students leading to Intermediate Japanese, it is also suitable for a wider scope of other learners in the community- secondary schools, Japanese courses in language schools, colleges, technical institutes and other tertiary institutions.

In search of a new identity: Shiga Shigetaka's recommendations for Japanese in Hawai'i

Masako Gavin — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:54:24 PDT

Extract:

After the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), over-population and unemployment became pressing issues in Japan. Many intellectuals were concerned about the social and economic hardships caused by these problems and advocated solving them through emigration. The prominent journalist and a professor of geography at the Tokyo Senmon Gakkô (presently Waseda University), Shiga Shigetaka (1863-1927), believed Hawai’i was an ideal migration destination for the unemployed and impoverished Japanese.

Poverty and its possible cures: Abe Isoo and Kawakami Hajime

Masako Gavin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:00:13 PST

This article explores the views of two eminent Meiji intellectuals, Abe Isoo (1865–1949) and Kawakami Hajime (1879–1946), regarding poverty and its possible cures. Both men addressed this subject at a time which saw the rapid development of monopoly capitalism in Japan. Politically, this period was typified by the social and political oppression that followed the Public Order Police Law (1900) and the High Treason Incident (1910). The latter marked the beginning of the “winter” of the socialist movement in Japan. Abe, the father of Japanese socialism, and the younger Kawakami, a bourgeois economist and later a Marxist, were two of the more prominent intellectuals concerned with poverty. This article outlines their thoughts on poverty and its possible cures in the period between 1903 and 1916 as expressed in their most representative works on the issue, Abe’s Saikin no shakai mondai (Current Social Problems), (1915) and Kawakami’s Bimbô monogatari (The Tale of Poverty), (1916).

Abe Isô (1865-1949) and his views on education

Masako Gavin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:00:13 PST

Extract:

Many intellectuals in the late Meiji period were dissatisfied with the trend at that time towards state-oriented education. They hoped for a ‘spiritual revolution’ that would go beyond institutional change and would reform basic habits of thought and reshape patterns of behaviour.1 Abe Isô, one of the most eminent intellectuals of the day, believed in a liberal approach to education and opposed the trend towards state-oriented education and the egocentric approach that superceded it. This paper studies his views on education, and in particular his response to tokuiku (the national moral teaching).

Firstly, this paper discusses Abe’s criticism of the trend towards state-oriented education, its conventional, authoritarian method of teaching morality, which he argued, failed to inspire students to serve the community and which exercised considerable ideological control. Secondly, it presents an overview of Abe’s thoughts on education, central to which was his belief that spiritual independence was only possible through a liberal approach to education. Finally, this paper studies his recommendations for rectifying perceived flaws in the existing educational system. It will be clear from this analysis that Abe hoped that educational reform would result in a positive transformation of society.

Abe Isô and New Zealand as a model for a “new” Japan

Masako Gavin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:00:12 PST

Extract:

This study focuses on Abe Isô, a professor at Tokyo Senmon Gakkô (the present Waseda University), who is regarded as a Christian socialist in Japan. He was born into the samurai class in its declining days and became concerned about poverty and social inequality as a child. He became a Christian in 1881 while studying at Doshisha (the present Doshisha University)1 and then a socialist after reading Looking backward, a utopian novel by Edward Bellamy (1850-1898), while studying at Hartford Theological Seminary in the United States. Upon returning to Japan in 1895, he began proposing socialist solutions to the “social problem”, at a time when these ideas were still new to the Japanese.

Shiga Shigetaka (1863-1927): the forgotten enlightener

Masako Gavin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:00:11 PST

Extract:

The late 1880's marked an upsurge in ideological activity in Japan. Widespread media coverage of unequal treaties signed with the Western powers without imperial permission had contributed to a sense of national humiliation and increased public awareness of Japan's predicament. The treaties ended the 270 years of self‐imposed feudal seclusion and forced Japan into free trade at selected ports where tariff autonomy was waived. As well as economic conflict and increased tension towards the West, this resulted in a strengthening of reverence for the Emperor. The second generation of the Meiji, who had received a Western education, criticised the government's indiscriminate Westernisation of Japan and its spineless attitude to the Western powers.

Shiga Shigetaka was one of the critics of the government's policies. Schools of thought, such as Shiga's Seikyôsha (Society for Politics and Education), Min'yûsha (People's Friends) represented by Tokutomi Sohô (1863‐‐1957) and the 'conservatives' comprised of jukyôshugi sha (Confucian scholars) dominated the debates over the course Japan should take.

Shiga, a geographer and journalist, was one of the few Japanese intellectuals in his time to visit Nan'yô (the South Seas). Most of his contemporaries, as might be expected, were focused on Seiyô (the West). Nan'yô jiji, an account of his first‐hand observations of Australia, New Zealand and other islands in the South Seas in 1886, became an instant best seller.