What Caused Japan’s Descent into Fascism and How to Prevent its Recurrence? Theoretical Approaches from Orthodox Marxism, Liberal Progressivism, and the New Left

Abstract In the aftermath of World War II, a fundamental question in Japan was what caused the country’s descent into fascism and how to prevent its recurrence. This article explores how different interpretations from three left-wing ideologies arose from the endeavour to address this issue. Orthodox Marxism focused on the economic structure of Japan in terms of the oppressive relations of production between social classes. Liberal progressivism focused on the social-cultural superstructure of the relationship individual-collective. The New Left tended to see the social alienation generated by capitalist modernity as the core of the problem. Based on their respective diagnoses, intellectuals proposed different political theories to revolutionize postwar Japanese society. The insight this article produces into the main ideological axes of postwar Japan’s debate on fascism is intended to counter, from a Comparative Political Theory approach, the Eurocentric neglect of non-Western theory necessary for the task of decentring Comparative Fascist Studies.