Civil society, the public sphere, and modernity in Japanese political thought

How fruitfully can the notions of civil society and the public sphere be applied to non-Western societies that do not share the socio-historical characteristics that generated them in Western Europe? Critical examination of the particular versus the universal in the construction of modernity in the civil society/public sphere framework highlights the antinomies of Western-defined modernity, particularly that between the imperatives of effective centralized political authority and freedom of expression. Despite the virtual absence of any discussion of the Japanese public sphere, claims by some scholars that the concepts of civil society and the public sphere are inapplicable to non-Western societies, and assertions by Japan’s Civil Society School that Japan never developed a vibrant civil society, this study demonstrates that socioeconomic development in the Tokugawa era was accompanied by the emergence of autonomous associations and claims by merchants, other commoners, and samurai to a voice in deliberating on public matters. Such claims were both reflected in and encouraged by significant developments in Japanese political thought, revealing a new political consciousness among these groups. These findings challenge prevailing assumptions regarding pre-Meiji Japan and demonstrate how democratizing forces were forged in a context quite different from that described by Jürgen Habermas and Charles Taylor in Western Europe.