CONCERNING THE IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON THE PROCESSES OF SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT IN JAPAN
The article focuses on the participation of Japan in the world globalization process and the features of the response to this process of the Japanese cultural tradition. It is concluded that there are three main stages in the spread of globalization processes in Japan: the Meiji era, the era of American occupation after World War II and the period from the 1970s. It is noted that in the 1960s and 1970s, Japan experienced the so-called boom of theories about Japanese identity ( nihonjin-ron , nihon bunka-ron ), reflecting the presence of a “contextual” personality in Japanese culture, in which an individual had an extremely high ability to act within the framework of interpersonal relations. The author recalls, that from the very beginning of Japan’s capitalist path, its outstanding intellectuals were aware of the danger of extreme individualism characteristic of the Western worldview, which viewed people as independent individuals driven by purely pragmatic interests. In Japan, on the contrary, each person traditionally felt himself / herself involved in a network of complex relationships, not only economic, but also universal human ties. It was obvious to Japanese intellectuals that the destruction of these traditional ties is fraught with the loss of national identity. It is stated that globalization, which in practice opposes the existence of national states, ultimately leads to the general elimination of national cultures that embody the specific features of human activity inherent in a particular community of people (both ethnic and professional, confessional, etc.) and reflecting the desire for cultural depersonalization. The author concludes that the efforts that the country’s ruling elite, despite the pressure of popular culture, are trying to direct to preserve the spiritual and moral core of the nation, help Japan, at least in part, to overcome the crises and upheavals of the era of globalism.