Bentham Studies in Japan Today
Résumés
Au Japon – mais c’est sans doute également le cas dans d’autres pays – Bentham a été, et est encore traité, de manière injuste, en raison du poids des critiques qui lui ont été faites par des personnalités telles que John Rawls et Ronald Dworkin. Néanmoins, à partir des années 1990, Bentham a suscité des réactions plus positives, grâce aux 4ème et 13ème conférences de la Société internationale des études utilitaristes (ISUS) qui se déroulèrent en 1994 (à Tokyo) et 2014 (à Yokohama) au Japon. Et, comme ce numéro spécial des « Études sur Bentham au Japon aujourd’hui » le montre, les études récentes sur Bentham menées au Japon se caractérisent par la diversité des champs dans lesquels œuvrent les universitaires qui étudient Bentham. Le présent numéro comprend donc des articles qui traitent de thèmes tels que les approches philosophiques de Bentham au sujet du langage, du droit, du gouvernement et de l’éducation, ainsi que sa pensée sur la religion et l’éthique. En outre, reflétant les dernières tendances des études académiques sur Bentham dans le monde entier, les études récentes sur Bentham menées au Japon ont tendance à porter sur les textes de Bentham eux-mêmes et sur le contexte dans lequel Bentham écrivait, et tentent d’offrir des interprétations équilibrées de Bentham. Certains universitaires étudiant Bentham au Japon s’efforcent aussi de dégager des implications pertinentes pour la société japonaise, qui était – et est toujours – une société laïque pour laquelle les idées utilitaristes sont pertinentes.
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We would like to thank the members of Centre Bentham, especially Professor Anne Brunon-Ernst, the chief editor, for this wonderful opportunity. We also would like to thank Professor Brunon-Ernst for the excellent editorial efforts, and Professors Michael Lobban (LSE) and Frédérique Lachaud (Université Paris-Sorbonne) for checking the French translations.
- 1 J. Bentham, Theory of Legislation; by Jeremy Bentham. Translated from the French of Etienne Dumont, (...)
1There are several periods in Japan that have witnessed an increased interest in Bentham. The first period was the Meiji era (1868–1912). The Meiji Restoration (1868) marked the end of Japan’s feudal government by the Samurai. At the time, the new ruling elites thought that there was an urgent need to introduce modern codes to Japan to catch up with the West and were eager to study foreign ideas on legislation. As is well known, Bentham published several influential works on codification, and Japanese legal scholars looked to Bentham’s work, along with the German and French legal codes. In particular, Bentham’s works, such as “Principles of the Civil Codes” and “Principles of the Penal Codes”, from Richard Hildreth’s edition of Theory of Legislation (1840), were translated into Japanese in 1876 and 1877-9, respectively.1 Some of Bentham’s works were translated by a secretary of provisional legislature, and Bentham’s theory of law, as orders of the sovereign, was particularly appealing to Japanese bureaucrats.
- 2 Y. Fukagai, “The Old Images and the Newly Revived Images of Bentham” in Y. Fukagai and M. Kaino (ed (...)
2In the 1880s, when movements to draft a Constitutional Code gained momentum, Bentham’s constitutional works, such as Fragment on Government, were also translated. However, in the end, new codes, such as the Constitutional Code (1889), were all modelled on German codes. Japanese scholars in the Meiji period considered German codes to be more helpful and found that they met their urgent needs to enact their own codes. Bentham’s theory, emphasising the importance of freedom of the press and public discussion, was too radical for Japanese society at the time. However, Bentham had built a great reputation among Japanese legal scholars in the late 19th century. Azusa Ono followed Bentham and argued that the ends of the Constitution are subsistence, abundance, equality and security. Although Bentham’s works did not influence actual legal and political institutions in Japan, Bentham provided direction for liberals in 19th-century Japan as well.2
- 3 K. Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, vol.1, ed. Engels, F, trans. Moore, S and Avelin (...)
3In Japan, the interest in Bentham increased when society was, to some extent, free and democratic. After the Taisho Era (1912–1926), as Japan became an authoritarian society, interest in Bentham faded. Nevertheless, even after the end of World War II, Bentham was treated unfairly. Karl Marx, who criticised Bentham as “a genius in the way of bourgeois stupidity”,3 was popular in Japan during the 1950s and 1960s. The 1970s and onward also saw many pollution lawsuits in Japan and the rights of residents were often judged to be within tolerable limits. In this context, echoing John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin’s criticisms against utilitarianism, Bentham’s utilitarian philosophy was criticised for promoting economic efficiency at the cost of residents’ well-being, as it did not constrain air or noise pollution.
- 4 K. Komatsu, Social Government and Education: The Educational Thought of Bentham (in Japanese), Ryug (...)
- 5 K. Ando, Governance and Utility: A Vindication of Utilitarian Liberalism (in Japanese), Tokyo, 2007
- 6 S. Kodama, Utility and Intuition: An Introduction to Anglo-American Theories of Ethics (in Japanese (...)
- 7 S. Obata, Jeremy Bentham and the English Constitution: State, Church and Public Opinion (in Japanes (...)
4However, after the 1990s, more positive interest in Bentham increased because of the 4th and 13th Conferences on the International Society for Utilitarian Studies (ISUS) held in Japan in 1994 (in Tokyo) and 2014 (in Yokohama), respectively. Recently, some younger scholars in Japan have published books on Bentham. For instance, Kayoko Komatsu published Social Government and Education: The Educational Thought of Bentham, a book on Bentham’s theory of education, in 2006,4 and Kaoru Ando published a book, entitled Governance and Utility: A Vindication of Utilitarian Liberalism, in 2007.5 In addition, Satoshi Kodama published two books on utilitarian ethics, Utility and Intuition: An Introduction to Anglo-American Theories of Ethics and Introduction to Utilitarianism: A First Book on Ethics, in 2010 and 2012, respectively.6 Shuntaro Obata’s 2013 book, Jeremy Bentham and the English Constitution: State, Church and Public Opinion, and Kazuya Takashima’s 2017 book, Bentham on Language: Utilitarianism and Pragmatism in the Thought of Jeremy Bentham, have also been published.7
- 8 M. Kaino, Jeremy Bentham, Legislator of the World: The Revisit of Utilitarian Legal Thought (in Jap (...)
- 9 H. Itai, “Bentham’s Indirect Legislation” in M. Otonashi (ed.), Utilitarianism and the Theories of (...)
5After the 4th ISUS in Tokyo in 1994, Daisuke Arie, Yasunori Fukagai, who presided at the 13th ISUS Conference in 2014, as well as other senior scholars, began to invite Bentham scholars, such as Marco Guidi, Paul Kelly, David Lieberman, Douglas Long, Michael Quinn, Frederick Rosen and Philip Schofield, to give seminars in Japan. Younger Bentham scholars who have contributed to this special issue attended these seminars as graduate students. The recent Bentham studies in Japan noted above have mainly been based on the splendid achievements of research from the UK and abroad. Michihiro Kaino published a book, entitled Jeremy Bentham, Legislator of the World: The Revisit of Utilitarian Legal Thought, in 2007, in which he discussed the liberal aspects of Bentham based on the research of Professors Rosen, Kelly and Gerald Postema.8 However, some of the younger Bentham scholars in Japan have focused more on the authoritarian aspects of Bentham. For instance, one of the topics that Hiroaki Itai discussed is Bentham’s theory of indirect legislation. In his article, “Bentham’s Indirect Legislation”, Itai saw the relevance of indirect legislation to modern society by arguing that Bentham’s idea of indirect legislation is an archetype of governance by the built environment or architecture.9
- 10 Fukagai and Kaino (eds.), The Challenges of Jeremy Bentham (in Japanese).
- 11 The articles by Takashima, Kaino, Obata and Itai are based on their respective chapters in The Chal (...)
6There has been a debate in Bentham studies between those who see Bentham as an authoritarian and those who see him as a liberal. In this special issue, some focus on the liberal aspects and discuss his theory of codification, which tried to secure people’s legal rights by making legal provisions clear and understandable, while others discuss Panopticon, which is said to represent Bentham’s authoritarian aspects. However, it is safe to say that, reflecting the current trends in Bentham scholarship around the world, recent Bentham studies in Japan have tended to focus on Bentham’s work itself and the context in which Bentham wrote without labelling him as exclusively liberal or authoritarian. It is also possible to emphasise the variety of Bentham studies in Japan. In 2015, The Challenges of Bentham, the first collection of academic papers on Bentham in Japanese, was published.10 The volume aimed to provide a complete picture of Bentham by including the articles of Bentham scholars from various fields, such as the history of ideas, history of social thought, history of economic thought, history of political thought, history of legal thought, philosophy of language and legal philosophy. Most of the contributors to The Challenges of Bentham contributed to this special issue as well.11 This issue also includes articles on Bentham’s theory of ethics and his theory of education.
7Reflecting on the variety of Bentham studies in Japan, this special issue comprises articles by specialists from various academic disciplines. A common theme among them is “challenges.” The first article, “Lost in Translation?: How Japan’s Intellectuals Translated Utilitarian Writings in the early Stage of Her Modernization”, by Daisuke Arie, discusses the “challenges” of the Japanese intellectuals of the Meiji era (1868–1912), who tried to translate Bentham’s and J. S. Mill’s works into Japanese. Arie raises an interesting point that it was quite easy for Japanese intellectuals of the period to understand the secular nature of utilitarianism because Japanese society had been, to some extent, secular at the time.
8The second part of this special issue comprises two articles that elaborate on the “challenges” of Bentham himself. Kazuya Takashima, in his article, “Bentham’s Theory of Language: its Structure, Originality, and Significance to his Political Radicalism”, situates Bentham’s theory of language in the history of linguistic thought and emphasises its pragmatic nature. Takashima adds that after 1811, the discovery of “delusion” led Bentham to fight a “war of words” against the sinister interests of various establishments in English society. On the other hand, Michihiro Kaino’s “Bentham’s Comprehensive and Effective Challenges Against the Common Law Tradition” aims to examine Bentham’s criticism of the Common Law comprehensively. Kaino also shows that Bentham’s Pannomion, which he designed to serve as a complete code of laws, can be better understood as a comprehensive alternative to the Common Law tradition. Minami Murata’s “John Stuart Mill and Political Reform: Responses to Bentham and Grote”, which discusses John Stuart Mill’s challenge against Bentham, is also included in this part. According to Murata, Mill’s intellectual connection with Grote provides an important intellectual source for him to challenge Bentham’s idea of politics.
9In the third part, the contributors “challenge” themselves to offer new interpretations of Bentham. Shuntaro Obata’s article, “Utility and Religion: Bentham’s Theory of Toleration” elaborates on Bentham’s religious thought. Here, Obata argues against the interpretation that Bentham’s utopia was a “secular Utilitarian society” where individuals were free from religion. According to Obata, Bentham considered the separation of Church and State as an institutional condition for realizing the utility of religion. Then, Hiroaki Itai’s “Surveillance and Metaphor of ‘Tribunal’ in Bentham’s Utilitarianism” tries to show that Bentham’s idea of governance was already formulated in the 1780s and was coherent throughout his career. Itai argues that Bentham’s ideas, for instance, in Panopticon evolved into the utilitarian idea of government in his later years.
10The articles in the final part discuss Bentham’s “challenges” and the modern world. In “Jeremy Bentham and ‘Citizenship Education’”, Kayoko Komatsu contrasts Bentham’s unique approach to education with the notion of citizenship education of the modern world. Komatsu also discusses Bentham’s experiment in education to establish a liberal society from scratch. Then, Satoshi Kodama’s article, “Bentham’s Distinction between Law and Morality and Its Contemporary Significance”, argues against the traditional distinction of law and morals as external and internal constraints upon individuals. After discussing Bentham’s ideas on their distinction, Kodama examines the contemporary significance in Japan of Bentham’s idea on the relationship between law and morality.
11Hopefully, these articles will demonstrate the nature and variety of Bentham studies in Japan today. Although most of the articles in this special issue do not rely on the Bentham Papers at the University College London Library, each contribution aims to reveal some new aspect of Bentham. Each article, including those with a historical approach, is driven by the relevance of Bentham thought in Japan. As Arie’s article shows, Japan has been and is a secular society suitable for utilitarian ideas. Although the criticisms against utilitarianism are still influential in Japan, these articles try to show Bentham’s thought as it is. Bentham scholars in Japan think that, if they do not look at Bentham from biased perspectives, Bentham’s notions of language, law, religion, government, education and ethics will evoke ideas that are new and worthy of consideration. Although not explicitly discussed in this special issue, Bentham’s ideas of religion, government, education and ethics can provide guidelines for Japanese society where the separation of religion from politics is still insufficient, where people are still looking for effective “securities against misrule”, and where stable ethics and more realistic theories of education are pursued.
Notes
1 J. Bentham, Theory of Legislation; by Jeremy Bentham. Translated from the French of Etienne Dumont, by Richard Hildreth, ed. J. Crimmins, 2 vols., London, 2004.
2 Y. Fukagai, “The Old Images and the Newly Revived Images of Bentham” in Y. Fukagai and M. Kaino (eds), The Challenges of Jeremy Bentham (in Japanese), Kyoto, 2015.
3 K. Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, vol.1, ed. Engels, F, trans. Moore, S and Aveling, E., Chicago, 1887, p. 432
4 K. Komatsu, Social Government and Education: The Educational Thought of Bentham (in Japanese), Ryugasaki, 2006.
5 K. Ando, Governance and Utility: A Vindication of Utilitarian Liberalism (in Japanese), Tokyo, 2007.
6 S. Kodama, Utility and Intuition: An Introduction to Anglo-American Theories of Ethics (in Japanese), Tokyo, 2010, and S. Kodama, Introduction to Utilitarianism: A First Book on Ethics (in Japanese), Tokyo, 2012.
7 S. Obata, Jeremy Bentham and the English Constitution: State, Church and Public Opinion (in Japanese), Tokyo, 2013, and K. Takashima, Bentham on Language: Utilitarianism and Pragmatism in the Thought of Jeremy Bentham (in Japanese), Tokyo, 2017.
8 M. Kaino, Jeremy Bentham, Legislator of the World: The Revisit of Utilitarian Legal Thought (in Japanese), Tokyo, 2007.
9 H. Itai, “Bentham’s Indirect Legislation” in M. Otonashi (ed.), Utilitarianism and the Theories of Policies (in Japanese), Tokyo, p. 3.
10 Fukagai and Kaino (eds.), The Challenges of Jeremy Bentham (in Japanese).
11 The articles by Takashima, Kaino, Obata and Itai are based on their respective chapters in The Challenges of Jeremy Bentham. We would like to thank the Publisher (Nakanishiya Press in Kyoto) for the permission to use these articles in this issue.
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Michihiro Kaino, « Bentham Studies in Japan Today », Revue d’études benthamiennes [En ligne], 16 | 2019, mis en ligne le 20 décembre 2019, consulté le 10 février 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/etudes-benthamiennes/5633 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/etudes-benthamiennes.5633
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