2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

An Institutional Economic Approach to understanding the Japanese traditional and religious rituals

Research Project

Project/Area Number	22653024
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Economic theory
Research Institution	Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University
Principal Investigator	SUZUKI Yasushi 立命館アジア太平洋大学, 国際経営学部, 教授 (00350752)
Project Period (FY)	2010 – 2011
Keywords	経済制度・体制理論 / インフォーマル制度 / 正義 / 公平原則 / 平等観 / ジョン・ロールズ / 経済哲学
Research Abstract	Informal institutions such as religion and culture have a great influence on the shared values of justice as fairness among the economic agents. This research aimed to review some unique features of the Japanese egalitarian society in the context of Rawlsian political philosophy and through the lens of New Institutional Economics. Japan is endowed with the informal institutional settings seeking for a solidarity-driven egalitarian society, which would be advantageous to transit to an intermediate between Rawlsian property-owning democracy and welfare state capitalism. However, the Japanese egalitarianism is different from Rawls egalitarianism associated with the "difference" principle of justice. Rather, the strict egalitarianism stems from the mechanism of envy avoidance, leaving the difference principle underdeveloped.

(3 results)