近代日本のアイデンティティ構造と変遷 総力戦・実学・コミュニティ

Abstract

Regarding Japan's modern and contemporary periods, there has been no attempt to view the era up to the 1990s, when Japan achieved economic superpower status, and the period since the 1990s, when the country suffered a prolonged recession known as the “Lost 30 Years” as two different manifestations of a single structure (dynamic) resulting from the process of modernization. In the Meiji Restoration, the starting point of Japan's modernization, the self-righteous (self-centeredness that does not recognize the existence of equal others) worldview established in the early modern period, the myth of military superiority that underpins it, and identity formation dependent on the community continued as basic dynamics while changing forms in the new environment. Before World War II, it led the nation by becoming a military superpower through imitation of Western great powers (with the mindset of restoring that status). After the war, it continued to lead the nation through a similar effort by shifting its focus from military to economic domains. What made this possible was the thorough homogenization and efficient resources in exchange for the unestablished individual ego. The root cause of the “Lost 30 Years” can be attributed to the fact that these characteristics, which were weapons in the era of total military and economic warfare, have become unsuitable for the current situation that demands innovation and differentiation.