Preface
Once upon a time, Western civilization swept the world like a raging wave. Japan has also rapidly absorbed Western civilization after the Meiji Restoration. Sometimes with the slogan of "leaving Asia and entering Europe", "Westernization" has been thought to mean evolution and the adoption of a higher level of civilization and culture.
The reason why Western civilization was so powerful is that the industrial revolution brought dramatic improvements in productivity, the development of transportation systems, the dramatic strengthening of military power, and the expansion of colonies by the great powers. If you ask me if Western civilization was so humane at that time, definitely not. In the 19th century, when Japan advanced its westernization, the Western world could be said to have been a world of selfishness and the law of the jungle. In the 20th century, two world wars devastated many people around the world.
A free market economy can also be described as a world of selfishness and survival of the fittest, where people think it is right to act according to their own desires. It is a free market that is prone to problems that can make many people unhappy.
The basis of Western political thought is democracy based on popular sovereignty, and after World War II, the "Cold War structure" of capitalism and its polar opposite, communism, continued. Both capitalism and communism are ideologies born in the West, and ideas that create cold and dark societies. None of these things fit in with the Japanese spirit of harmony.
Under popular sovereignty politics, it is easy for hate speech and violent revolution to incite the masses. In capitalism, the pursuit of extreme rationalization and efficiency breaks people's hearts. On the other hand, under communism, people are deprived of various freedoms and society stagnate.
Western medicine focuses on symptomatic treatment and attempts to manage health numerically. Improving lifestyle habits and taking care of the mind are important for good health. Too much reliance on Western medicine tends to overlook the prevention of disease, the balance of the whole body, or the relationship between mind and body.
We are already aware of the problems of Western civilization. Directly adopting Western civilization will never make us happy or advance our society.
The path that we should take from now on is the path where we become richer and happier, where society develops well, and where the world becomes more peaceful and safe. But what kind of path is it?
Here we will consider how to break away from Western thought. Western thought has permeated our society, and many people think and act based on Western thought. As a result, many people end up suffering from the very Western ideas. De-Europeanism seeks to escape from suffering by reexamining and correcting the problems of Western thought that cause suffering.
Here we are thinking about conversion. Conversion is to change a bad mind. The world moves with people's hearts. If people have a bad heart, the world will move in a bad direction. In order for the world to move in a positive direction so that people can be happy, it is important for people to have good hearts. Let's take a look at conversions to make the world a better place.
Here, I will think about returning to the heart of harmony. Wa means calm, friendly, and a good mixture of various things. The spirit of harmony is to have no conflict, discrimination, or hatred. It is an original Japanese tradition to have a heart of harmony. In Return to Japaneseization, we will look at the way of thinking and the direction for us to return to the heart of harmony.
