I mean it doesn’t help that the CPJ had been crushed in the Korean War in the 50s and had it’d entire leadership taken over by social-democratic intelligentsia in the 60s. Also probably doesn’t help that nearly all of japans manufacturing industry was also off-shored to cheaper labor markets and had switched to a consumer market with the majority of the workforce being employed in soul-draining service jobs and the only employers are the zaibatsus or the artificially proped up petty bourgeois small business owners. Funny enough that’s extremely similar to the situation in South Korea as well. Also the u.s but that’s spread more widely so it doesn’t seem as apparent.
Huh I could play that one Animaniacs song with Yako listing country names and the comparison probably still holds
Yep, though Japan’s own imperial history gives it a qualitatively different character to the ROK, which has largely been the history of a colonized country turned imperial vassal. The ROK still has domestic mass manufacturing, though it largely keeps it through suppressing wages. At least, that’s my present understanding. The ROK still has extreme anti-communism, but a stronger union movement, which of course isn’t sufficient but does signify a more millitant working class. The ROK in general is a pot constantly on the verge of boiling over, including in the social sphere with rising feminist movements.
I think thar can be expounded more to do with the material development into modernization of both nations with regards to the fact that Japan’s pursuit of rapid modernization was built off the back of the capitalist and monarchists crushing reactionary landlords in the boshin war and being able to industrialize more or less completely unhindered by their old feudal aristocracy. This rapid industrialization lead was paired hand in hand with the rapid proletarianization of the masses in addition to rapid increases to the general standard of living with international capital flooding their market with surplus commodities. This would further be supplemented by the imperial Japanese’ own colonial acquisition across east Asia, including Korea, where any additional colonial industrialization was conducted for enrichment of the Japanese capitalist class with the usual table scraps for the Japanese masses to complete the circuit of colonial exploitation.
This is drawn in contrast to Korea’s own history of being a feudal monarchy that was more or less completely hamstrung by its system of governance that worked hand-in-hand with the entrenched Yangban who thrived on the decentralized system of governance they organically grew through generations in addition to the entrenched system of slavery and diplomatic isolation from the then present European powers that delayed the centralization of power and push to modernization until king Gojong and the reformist cabinet could push it into reality with the reforms that they begun in 1897, a good 30 years later than Japan’s own reform and modernization. The decades long cruel repressions waged by the Yangbans on the masses in conjunction to the slow yet steady influx of knowledge and education from beyond koreas borders disseminating western capitalist and socialist ideas into the minds of oppressed koreans seeking radical alternatives to their status quo. In a constant fight against the entrenched aristocracy and the peasant rebellions against them in addition to the intrigue of the aristocrats to undermine the state to further empower themselves, in addition to facing enormous pressure from external powers on all sides, the Korean state had barely 20 tumultuous years for capitalist construction and state modernization to occur before the Japanese Empire conquered them and allowed the more matured Japanese, and foreign, capital to flood in and build their own exploitative construction.
I think those intergenerational differences played pivotal roles - the other major event I think was the Korean War - in shaping the contemporary national character of both nations and why the class consciousness’ of both countries are so different.
Yep, excellent write-up! Korea, in general, has not had a “normal” year of development for well over a century and a half. From colinization to war to the present split, Korea’s conditions have been extremely tumultuous. Throughout all of it, though, has been a strong history of radicalism and resistance. Japan had a much more “normal” course of development, as it gained a head-start on industrialization and maintained it with colonization of the surrounding areas.
I mean it doesn’t help that the CPJ had been crushed in the Korean War in the 50s and had it’d entire leadership taken over by social-democratic intelligentsia in the 60s. Also probably doesn’t help that nearly all of japans manufacturing industry was also off-shored to cheaper labor markets and had switched to a consumer market with the majority of the workforce being employed in soul-draining service jobs and the only employers are the zaibatsus or the artificially proped up petty bourgeois small business owners. Funny enough that’s extremely similar to the situation in South Korea as well. Also the u.s but that’s spread more widely so it doesn’t seem as apparent.
Huh I could play that one Animaniacs song with Yako listing country names and the comparison probably still holds
Yep, though Japan’s own imperial history gives it a qualitatively different character to the ROK, which has largely been the history of a colonized country turned imperial vassal. The ROK still has domestic mass manufacturing, though it largely keeps it through suppressing wages. At least, that’s my present understanding. The ROK still has extreme anti-communism, but a stronger union movement, which of course isn’t sufficient but does signify a more millitant working class. The ROK in general is a pot constantly on the verge of boiling over, including in the social sphere with rising feminist movements.
I think thar can be expounded more to do with the material development into modernization of both nations with regards to the fact that Japan’s pursuit of rapid modernization was built off the back of the capitalist and monarchists crushing reactionary landlords in the boshin war and being able to industrialize more or less completely unhindered by their old feudal aristocracy. This rapid industrialization lead was paired hand in hand with the rapid proletarianization of the masses in addition to rapid increases to the general standard of living with international capital flooding their market with surplus commodities. This would further be supplemented by the imperial Japanese’ own colonial acquisition across east Asia, including Korea, where any additional colonial industrialization was conducted for enrichment of the Japanese capitalist class with the usual table scraps for the Japanese masses to complete the circuit of colonial exploitation.
This is drawn in contrast to Korea’s own history of being a feudal monarchy that was more or less completely hamstrung by its system of governance that worked hand-in-hand with the entrenched Yangban who thrived on the decentralized system of governance they organically grew through generations in addition to the entrenched system of slavery and diplomatic isolation from the then present European powers that delayed the centralization of power and push to modernization until king Gojong and the reformist cabinet could push it into reality with the reforms that they begun in 1897, a good 30 years later than Japan’s own reform and modernization. The decades long cruel repressions waged by the Yangbans on the masses in conjunction to the slow yet steady influx of knowledge and education from beyond koreas borders disseminating western capitalist and socialist ideas into the minds of oppressed koreans seeking radical alternatives to their status quo. In a constant fight against the entrenched aristocracy and the peasant rebellions against them in addition to the intrigue of the aristocrats to undermine the state to further empower themselves, in addition to facing enormous pressure from external powers on all sides, the Korean state had barely 20 tumultuous years for capitalist construction and state modernization to occur before the Japanese Empire conquered them and allowed the more matured Japanese, and foreign, capital to flood in and build their own exploitative construction.
I think those intergenerational differences played pivotal roles - the other major event I think was the Korean War - in shaping the contemporary national character of both nations and why the class consciousness’ of both countries are so different.
Yep, excellent write-up! Korea, in general, has not had a “normal” year of development for well over a century and a half. From colinization to war to the present split, Korea’s conditions have been extremely tumultuous. Throughout all of it, though, has been a strong history of radicalism and resistance. Japan had a much more “normal” course of development, as it gained a head-start on industrialization and maintained it with colonization of the surrounding areas.