State and nation in twentieth-century Japan: toward an interpretive framework

This article suggests new directions in theories of Japanese nationalism that go beyond current theoretical assumptions that set ethnic (minzoku) and civic (kokumin) forms of nationalism against each other. Arguing that renewed attention to the concept of the state (kokka) is needed, it then explores influential Japanese ideas about the state, particular those of Kawamura Matasuke and Tanaka Kotaro, along with other theories that argue that social organizations should be seen primarily as moral communities. This perspective, when incorporated into Tanaka's theory of world law, offers a mechanism for rehabilitating the state and the nation, even ethnic nations, for a global community that is accountable to the moral principles of the universal natural law.