The Demise of a Critical Institution of Economic Geography in Japan
Year: 2006
Type: report
Abstract: Surprising as it sounds to those who know little about the history of geographic thoughts in Japan, critical geography, with history of less than a generation in the English-speaking countries, has heritage that lasted for seven decades in Japan. The crises in capitalism have often triggered critical approach in the academics. It was the Vietnam War in North America, and the Great Depression of 1929-30 in Japan. Amidst the wagging militarism and oppression on the academic freedom, Marxism attained its zenith in Japan in the 1930s, marked by the completion of the first full Japanese translation of Capital, and publication of Nihon Shihonshugi Hattatsushi Koza [A Seminar on Historical Development of Japanese Capitalism], which was a comprehensive Marxian analysis of the structure of pre-war Japanese economy that later became seminal. This gave impetus to the translation of a couple of geography books published in the Soviet Union and Germany. The Stalinist influence was obvious there, in its sweeping disavowal of geographical determinism, which was regarded by the communist regime then as one of the major ideological impediments to the ‘remodelling of nature ’ and space. It nevertheless gave a decisive kick-off to the Japanese critical geographers.
Author: Fujio Mizuoka
Institution: Hitotsubashi University
Language: English
Subfield: Geography, Planning and Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W59855150