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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
Uchihashi Katsuto is a well-known political and economic critic. Born in Kobe in 1932, he worked as a journalist with the Kobe Shimbun newspaper until 1967, when he became a freelance journalist and writer. He is the author of more than seventy books and frequently appears on radio and television. This ‘essay’ is his keynote address at a June 2005 symposium celebrating the 60th anniversary of the influential monthly Sekai (The World).
The title of this essay, ‘The Lost “Human Country,” ‘may appear bewildering, but the central term has a long history in Japanese discourse. ‘Human country’ (ningen no kuni) was used by Christians to translate biblical expressions such as those given in English as ‘kingdoms of this world’ (Rev. 11:15) or ‘human society’ (Daniel 4:31). Christians in Japan have a history of social and political activism since at least the Heiminsha (Commoners’ Society) was established to oppose the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. This spirit of resistance has provided ethical support for many contemporary opposition movements.
[1] Oda Makoto's essay, ‘Is this a Human Country?’ (Kore wa ‘ningen no kuni’ ka) appeared in the evening edition of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper on year after the earthquake, on 17 January 1996. He subsequently expanded it into a book of the same title that was published by Chikuma Shobo in 1998.
[2] The USS Kitty Hawk has been based at Yokosuka, Japan, since August 1998 as America's only permanently forward-deployed aircraft carrier.
[3] The Gini coefficient is an index of economic inequality; a society in which income is perfectly equally distributed registers as 0, while a perfectly unequal society registers as 1, so that the coefficient increases and approaches 1 as inequality increases.
[4] Uchihashi simply refers to Keidanren, but it is now part of a new organization, the Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), formed from the amalgamation of Keidanren (Japan Federation of Economic Organizations) and Nikkeiren (Japan Federation of Employers’ Associations) in May 2002.
[5] Kami wa saibu ni yadoritamau (God resides in the details), San'ichi shobo, 1977.
[6] The Three Principles prohibit Japan from exporting arms to the following countries or regions: (1) communist bloc countries; (2) countries subject to arms export embargo under United Nations Security Council resolutions; and (3) countries involved in or likely to be involved in international conflicts. The Principles were submitted to the Diet by the Sato Eisaku cabinet in 1967, and have remained the basic policy concerning Japan's weapons exports, although they were revised somewhat by the Miki and Nakasone administrations. More recently in February 2004, Keidanren moved to loosen the provisions to facilitate the further development of Japan's weapons industry. These moves have been largely accepted by the Koizumi cabinet, which for example moved in December 2004 to permit Japanese collaboration in the US Missile Defense (MD) program as an ‘exception’ to the Three Principles. See a summary of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official policy on the principles. For a recent assessment of Japan's arms trade see Robin Ballantyne, Japan's Hidden Arms Trade.
[7] ‘Ningen fukko’ no keizaigaku wo mezashite (Aiming for an Economics of ‘Human Revival’), Asahi Shimbunsha, 2004
[8] Keizai no kyofu (L'horreur economique) (The Economics of Fear). Japanese trans.: Maruyama gakugei tosho, 1998.
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