Japan’s unique economy stems from its non-Western culture

Evidence

We must be grateful to Ronald L. Meek for writing the prehistory of the concept of a “mode of production” (as that will later be worked out in the writings of Morgan and Marx), which in the eighteenth century took the form of what Meek calls the “four stages theory.” This theory came together in France and the Scottish Enlightenment, as the proposition that human cultures historically vary with their material or productive basis, which knows four essential transformations: hunting and gathering, pastoralism, agriculture, and commerce. — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 861 (#complicates, via linked claim)

While Chinese and Japanese found new value in their own cultures, they also shared in a broader reassertion of the value of Asian culture generally compared to that of the West. Industrialization and the growth that accompanied it produced in the 1980s and 1990s articulation by East Asians of what may be appropriately termed the Asian affirmation. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 291 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Japan’s low litigation rate cannot be explained by culture alone — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1146; Economic integration among Asian states requires cultural commonality Japan lacks; Japanese macroeconomics defied standard Western economic laws (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Human cultures historically vary with their material or productive basis #complicates (0.78) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 861
• Culture-clash arguments foreclose the possibility of non-Western progress #complicates (0.76)
• East Asian economic success generated a cultural self-assertion movement #complicates (0.75) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 291
• Culture’s distance from the economy makes it prone to idealization #complicates (0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 18