The City as Subject: Seki Hajime and the Reinvention of Modern Osaka (Volume 13) (Twentieth Century Japan: The Emergence of a World Power)

17 b/w photographs, 1 map In exploring the career of Seki Hajime (1873-1935), who served as mayor of Japan's second-largest city, Osaka, Jeffrey E. Hanes traces the roots of social progressivism in prewar Japan. Seki, trained as a political economist in the late 1890s, when Japan was focused single-mindedly on "increasing industrial production," distinguished himself early on as a people-centered, rather than a state-centered, national economist. After three years of advanced study in Europe at the turn of the century, during which he engaged Marxism and later steeped himself in the exciting new field of social economics, Seki was transformed into a progressive. The social reformism of Seki and others had its roots in a transnational fellowship of progressives who shared the belief that civilized nations should be able to forge a middle path between capitalism and socialism. Hanes's sweeping study permits us not only to weave social progressivism into the modern Japanese historical narrative but also to reconceive it as a truly transnational movement whose impact was felt across the Pacific as well as the Atlantic.

In exploring the career of Seki Hajime (1873-1935), who served as mayor of Japan's second-largest city, Osaka, Jeffrey E. Hanes traces the roots of social progressivism in prewar Japan. Seki, trained as a political economist in the late 1890s, when Japan was focused single-mindedly on "increasing industrial production," distinguished himself early on as a people-centered, rather than a state-centered, national economist. After three years of advanced study in Europe at the turn of the century, during which he engaged Marxism and later steeped himself in the exciting new field of social economics, Seki was transformed into a progressive.
The social reformism of Seki and others had its roots in a transnational fellowship of progressives who shared the belief that civilized nations should be able to forge a middle path between capitalism and socialism. Hanes's sweeping study permits us not only to weave social progressivism into the modern Japanese historical narrative but also to reconceive it as a truly transnational movement whose impact was felt across the Pacific as well as the Atlantic.

In exploring the career of Seki Hajime (1873-1935), who served as mayor of Japan's second-largest city, Osaka, this book traces the roots of social progressivism in prewar Japan. Seki, trained as a political economist in the late 1890s, when Japan was focused single-mindedly on “increasing industrial production,” distinguished himself early on as a people-centered, rather than state-centered, national economist. After three years of advanced study in Europe at the turn of the century, during which he engaged with Marxism and later steeped himself in the exciting new field of social economics, Seki was transformed into a progressive. The social reformism of Seki and others had its roots in a transnational fellowship of progressives who shared the belief that civilized nations should be able to forge a middle path between capitalism and socialism. This book permits us not only to weave social progressivism into the modern Japanese historical narrative, but also to reconceive it as a truly transnational movement whose impact was felt across the Pacific as well as the Atlantic "In exploring the career of Seki Hajime (1873-1935), who served as mayor of Japan's second-largest city, Osaka, Jeffrey E. Hanes traces the roots of social progressivism in prewar Japan. Seki, trained as a political economist in tbe late 1890s, when Japan was focused single-mindedly on "increasing industrial production," distinguished himself early on as a people-centered, rather than a state-centered, national economist. After three years of advanced study in Europe at the turn of the twentieth century, during which he engaged Marxism and later steeped himself in the exciting new field of social economics, Seki was transformed into a progressive."--BOOK JACKET. In exploring the career of Seki Hajime, who served as mayor of Japan's second-largest city, Osaka, this text traces the roots of social progressivism in prewar Japan, permitting us to reconceive it as a truly transnational movement whose impact was felt across the Pacific and Atlantic. On Nakanoshima, at the center of the city of Osaka, stands the weatherworn statue of Mayor Seki Hajime (1873-1935).