Emergence of Marxian Scholarship in Japan:Kawakami Hajime and his Two Critics

摘要

This paper explores into the history of Marxian economics in Japan anddiscovers in the criticism of Kawakami Hajime (1879-1946) by Kushida Tamizo(1885-1934) and Fukumoto Kazuo (1894-1983) in the early nineteen-twenties theemergence of Marxian scholarship in Japan. Kushida criticized his mentor's moralistic traitsand Fukumoto attacked Kawakani's negligence of methodology and systematic structure ofMarxian thought. Accepting the criticism of both, Kawakami transformed himself to aMarxian economist and through his prolific writing provided Japanese youth with thestandard knowledge of Marxian economics. Of the two critics of him, Kushida was moreoriented to empirical research, while Fukumoto was more theoretical. In the mid of theninety-thirties, all of the three left the front of the intellectual world and a new generation ofMarxian economists appeared. However, in my view, all of them were deeply indebted bythe scholarly horizon that had been developed by the three forerunners.