Yoshida Shigeru and the Japanese Transition to Liberal Democracy

Abstract

Yoshida Shigeru,¹ Prime Minister of Japan during the early postwar years, expounded a vision of Japan as a "Commercial State" dedicated to liberal principles in association with the United States. The vision put highest priority on Japan's economic growth, integration into the Western free-market trading system, non-involvement in overseas conflicts, and allegiance to the democratic and peaceful principles of the postwar Constitution. Resisting pressure from more nationalistic conservatives and from the political Left, Yoshida's moderate conservative economism became institutionalized through his efforts to establish a non-punitive peace treaty and bilateral security treaty that would recognize Japan's strategic importance to the West, to construct a political-bureaucratic-business interaction conducive to capitalistic development, and to develop a network for recruiting political successors who could carry forth his vision.