7 - Technological culture

Summary

There has long been a tension between tradition and modernity in Japan. We can see this tension at work in the relationship between technology and culture. Since the 19th century, this has been articulated in the slogan 'wakon yōsai' ('Japanese spirit, Western technology'). This chapter argues that this dualism allows the Japanese to create a space for their own culture and to develop a sense of identity based on the relationship between Western technology and Japanese cultural traditions. The relationship between the two has fluctuated at times, especially during the Meiji period (1868-1912). In the late 1870s, the emphasis on Western technology gave way to a type of cultural nationalism. In the wake of defeat in the Second World War, wakon became discredited and was largely replaced from the late 1950s by rampant consumerism. With rising confidence in Japanese technology, people sought to account for Japanese success and interest in wakon could be seen in advertising and accounts of the Japanese economic 'miracle' from the 1960s. Japanese technological culture is thus seen as an amalgam of Western technology and Japanese culture which combines the strengths of both. In a way, it can also be regarded as a compromise. This chapter examines the nature of Japanese technological culture, and the waxing and waning of wakon to provide a window to the Japanese embrace of modernity, and the concomitant confidence of the Japanese people in themselves and at times their traditions.