Individualism, human rights, and modernisation : the case of Japan

Abstract

Although the forces of modernisation place transformational pressures on all aspects of societies, their impact varies across the different dimensions of culture.  Above all, traditional cultures of collectivism, which are dominant in the non-Western world, tend to be persistent against the challenges of external forces, preventing the requisite ideological westernisation or individualisation of societies.  In the meantime, modernisation destroys the traditional communal protection systems of human dignity, creating the necessity for human rights to function in order to safeguard workers against the forces of capitalism.  However, the permeating culture of collectivism engenders intolerance among people towards individualistic attitudes of rights claims.  As a result, some non-Western societies today are caught in a deep dilemma of having a collectivist culture which is incompatible with human rights practice on one hand and an industrialised capitalist society which is in line for individualism and human rights practice on the other.

Investigating this contemporary dilemma and its consequences, the recognition of which is necessary if we aim to move towards better human rights practice, is the primary purpose of the thesis.  The first part of the thesis investigates the phenomena of individualism, industrialisation, and human rights, principally focusing on their origins, conceptions, and interrelationships.  The latter part of the thesis provides a case study of Japanese society focusing on violation of workers’ rights commonly taking place in Japanese enterprises. Japan was the first non-Western country to become fully modernised with a successful capitalist economy, and yet, its traditional value of collectivism has persisted particularly in the form of the computer-family ideology.  Therefore, the case study provides a fertile ground on which to investigate the efficacy of human rights implementation in the absence of a fully enrooted concept of individualism, as well as further elucidating the dilemma modernisation poses for non-Western societies.

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