Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: AFTER THE BEGINNING OF the Meiji Restoration in 1868 Japan began to undergo the process of modernization and was very eager to absorb western ideas.The name of Robert Owen was first introduced into Japan in 1874, via the translation into Japanese of a kind of encyclopedia entitled Chambers's Information for the People, edited by William and Robert Chambers and published in London in 1835.In one chapter of this book the editors explained Utopia by Thomas More, and mentioned the names of Owen and Charles Fourier as the persons who practiced More's idea.News of the European co-operative movement was first reported in Japan in a newspaper in 1878, and in the next year the first co-operative stores were founded under its influence in Tokyo and Kyoto.Thus Owen's name came to Japan just before the introduction of the co-operative movement.In 1891 a book written by Seizo Ishitani was published.Since it contained chapters on Owen, Owenites, and co-operation, it represented the beginning of the study of Owen in Japan-though that study was very primitive.After Ishitani, articles on Owen began appearing in Christian magazines, university bulletins, and so on.Owen was becoming popular in Japan as a founder of English socialism, as well as for great contributions to working people through the co-operative movement and the establishment of factory laws.His ideas also had some influence on business leaders who wanted to ameliorate labor conditions in their factories.The the time of industrial revolution in Japan and after the Russo-Japanese War,
Source: Communal Societies
Author: Atsushi Shirai
Language: English
Topic: Japanese History and Culture
Subfield: Cultural Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7129023322
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