Nakae Chōmin

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Nakae Chōmin
Likeness from the Meiji Jinbutsu Shokan
Born(1847-12-08)December 8, 1847
Kōchi Prefecture, Japan
DiedDecember 13, 1901(1901-12-13) (aged 54)
Osaka, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Occupation(s)Journalist, Politician
Known fordevelopment of liberalism
In this Japanese name, the surname is Nakae.
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Nakae Chōmin (中江 兆民, December 8, 1847 – December 13, 1901) was the pen-name of a journalist, political theorist and statesman in

Meiji-period Japan. His real name was Nakae Tokusuke (中江 篤助). His major contribution was the popularization of the egalitarian doctrines of the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Japan. As a result, Nakae is thought to have been a major force in the development of liberalism
in early Japanese politics.

Biography

Nakae was born in

Nagasaki and Edo. Later, he worked as a translator for the French minister to Japan, Léon Roches
.

After the

Emile Acollas' Law School for foreign students in Paris
.

Upon his return to Japan, Nakae served as a lower-ranked secretary of the Genrōin. However, he soon became disenchanted by corruption and factionalism in Japanese government, and resigned to devote himself to other literary and educational activities.

In 1874, he established his own French language school. In 1881, he helped to start the daily newspaper, “Oriental Free Press” (東洋自由新聞, Tōyō Jiyū Shinbun), through which he propagated Western

unequal treaties and the rapid implementation of an elected national assembly. In 1887, Nakae was sentenced to exile from Tokyo under the Peace Preservation Ordinance [ja] for publishing critical articles about the Meiji oligarchy. He spent the next few years in Osaka, where he started the "Newspaper of the Dawn" (東雲新聞, Shinonome Shinbun). Nakae was pardoned after the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution in 1889, and he and his family moved back to Tokyo in October of that year.[1]

During the

Hokkaidō, where he again established a newspaper. He ran for office again in the 1892 General Election
, and after re-election was a strong supporter of railroad development.

Nakae continued to write, despite poverty and illness, until his death of esophageal cancer in 1901. His grave is at Aoyama Cemetery, Tokyo.

Works

  • A Discourse by Three Drunkards on Government

Notes

  1. ^ Chōmin, Nakae. A Discourse By Three Drunkards On Government. Translated by Nobuko Tsukui. Boston: Weatherhill, 1984.

See also

References

  • Eddy Dufourmont, “Rousseau in Modern Japan (1868-1889): Nakae Chōmin and the source of East Asian democracy” dans Neal Harris, Denis C. Bosseau, Ployjai Pintobtang, and Owen Brown ed., Rousseau’s Philosophy: Interdisciplinary Essays, Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2023, pp.239-260.
    ISBN 978-3-031-29242-2
    .
  • Eddy Dufourmont, Rousseau et la première philosophie de la liberté en Asie (1874-1890): Nakae Chômin, Le Bord de l'eau, 2021.
  • Hane, Mikiso. Modern Japan: A Historical Survey. Westview Press (2001).
    ISBN 0-8133-3756-9
  • Hotta Eri. Pan-Asianism and Japan’s War of 1931-1945. Pan-Asianism and Japan's War 1931-1945. Palgrave Macmillan (2007).
    ISBN 0-230-60103-0
  • ISBN 9780674003347; OCLC 44090600
  • ISBN 0-226-56803-2

Further reading

Wikiquote has quotations related to Nakae Chōmin.
  • De Lange, William (2023). A History of Japanese Journalism: State of Affairs and Affairs of State. Toyo Press.
    ISBN 978-94-92722-393
    .

External links

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