Ordinary economies in Japan
Subtitle: a historical perspective, 1750-1950
By: Tetsuo Najita.
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 282
ISBN-13: 9780520260382
Subjects: Japan -- Economic conditions -- To 1868; Japan -- Economic conditions -- 1868-1918; Japan -- Economic conditions -- 1945-
Description: The author explores a powerful theme in the economic thought and practice of ordinary citizens in late Tokugawa and early modern Japan. He examines commoners' writings on the virtues of commerce, on the reconstruction of villages, and on groups offering credit and loans, particularly the traditional cooperative, the kō, which citizens created to save on another in times of famine and fiscal emergency without having to turn to their government. The author's discussion centers on the relationship among economics, ethics, and the epistemological premise that nature must serve as the first principle of all knowledge, and he illuminates comparative issues of poverty, capitalism, and modernity.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Other visions of virtue; title: Commonsense knowledge; title: The K_ as organizational consciousness; title: Work as ethical practice; title: H_toku and modernizing the nation; title: The Mujin Company.