Hasegawa Nyozekan and Liberalism in Modern Japan

Though to date, little has been published in English on his work, Hasegawa Nyozekan was one of the strongest and most widely-read advocates of liberalism and democracy in Japan in the inter-war years.

In 1918, after ten years with the liberal newspaper, Osaka Asahi shimbun, Nyozekan resigned to protest against government censorship.

In 1932, he published one of his most important works, "Nihon fuashizumu hihan (Critique of Japanese Fascism)", an extended analysis of "Japanese fascism".

Increasing government repression of intellectual debate in the mid-1930s, resulting in Nyozekan's arrest and a brief stay in jail, prompted Nyozekan to opt for a more oblique style of criticism, turning to a study of the Japanese national character where he argued that the Japanese people and culture were inherently liberal, rational and democratic, basing his analysis of Japan's national character on a deep knowledge of British Classical Liberalism.

Presenting the core ideas of Nyozekan's thought, this book will be welcomed by students of modern Japanese history, as well as Japanese pre-war and post-war intellectual history.