Japanese Thinker Fukuzawa Yukichi: Transformations of His Image

Abstract

The merits of Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835–1901) in the formation of modern (after the Meiji Revolution) Japan are very great. He wrote many works introducing to the Japanese achievements of Western civilization. Fukuzawa also founded the country’s first private university, Keio, and thus made a significant contribu­tion to the development of the education system. In Japan he is considered to be a great educator. At the same time, assessments of Fukuzawa’s activities and his ideas underwent significant changes. By the end of his life he was an integral part of the establishment. The official attitude towards him remained positive for some time after his death, but in the 1930s it changed, since Fukuzawa’s ideas regarding the independence and self-respect of the individual turned out to be unacceptable for a totalitarian state. However, along with the collapse of mili­tarism, it was these ideas that allowed him to enter the pantheon of heroes of post-war democratic Japan.