Japanese Modernity: The First Non-Western Multiple Modernity

摘要

The main objective of this article is to analyze the modern Japanese politicalsystem within a comparative framework, especially that of multiplemodernities and their civilizational roots. The point of departure for thisanalysis is the fact that while in organizational terms the modern Japanesepolitical system is a modern Constitutional system, similar to those of Europe,its political dynamic is manifested in the structure and orientations of protestmovements, the establishment of the problem of community and civil society,and the dynamic of regime changes that differs greatly from the European.Such differences are rooted in non-Axial premises of Japanese civilization thathave crystallized over the course of the long Japanese historical experienceand have shaped some of the main differences between the Meiji Revolutionand the Great Revolutions.