IN SEEKING to explain the startling recent economic successes of the countries on the Asian edge of the Pacific rim, many commentators have looked for historical and cultural commonalities among them that may have contributed to such rapid growth. Some have pointed to the importance of a shared Confucian heritage and suggested that this common Confucian tradition-defined in terms of an emphasis on such values as a secular, this-worldly orientation, personal disci pline, diligence, ordered family life, respect for hierarchy and au thority, social harmony, and an emphasis on education-may have played a significant role in the dramatic growth of Japan, South Ko rea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. This point of view contrasts sharply with earlier views, which have tended to see Confucianism as a retarding factor, one that was inimical to equality, freedom, democ racy, and the rights of women and young people and thus something to be sloughed off in the process of modernization, rather than a pos itive contributor to democratic development, social equality, intellec tual vitality, and industrial dynamism. 1 In the case of Japan, the argument that Confucianism has contrib uted positively to the country's modern development and is still very much alive has been made by a number of scholars. Edwin O. Reischauer, for example, writes:ContemporaryJapanese obviously are not Confucianists in the sense that their Tokugawa ancestors were, but they are still permeated with Con-1 For positive assessments of the Confucian contribution see Roy Hofheinz Jr. and Kent E. Calder, The Eastasia Edge (New York: Basic Books, 1982). The major criticisms of Confucianism are that it has tended to be extremely conservative, to support ruling elites and the status quo, to provide theoretical justification for authoritarianism, to justify inequality between sexes and age groups, and to obstruct the development of equality, freedom, democracy, and individualism. Criticism has been sharpest with re gard to the role of Confucianism in the modern history of China, but it has also been voiced in relation to Confucianism in Japan, Korea, and more recently Taiwan, Sin gapore, and Vietnam. For a negative evaluation of Confucianism in Japan's recent eco nomic "success" see Michio Morishima, Why Has Japan "Suceeded"? : Western Technology and the Japanese Ethos (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1982). THE CONFUCIAN LEGACY IN JAPAN113 cipal who went around his school quietly and humbly scraping chew ing gum from chairs with a knife:No rules banning gum from the school are announced, nor are punish ments set out for sticking it under the seats; only moral example and group sentiment are relied upon to solve the problem. Confucius would have approved. Otani [High School] is obviously quite a distance from attaining this ideal but the path forward is neither bureaucratic nor dem ocratic nor socialist so much as it is Japanese and Confucian. 5But even while stressing the persistent influence of Confucianism in Japanese education, Rohlen also...
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