3rd Lecture on Global Justice: "From Feudalism to Meritocracy? Growing Demands for Competent and Efficient Government in the Late Tokugawa Period"

Organizer: Department of Philosophy (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-Sen University

Topic: "From Feudalism to Meritocracy? Growing Demands for Competent and Efficient Government in the Late Tokugawa Period"

Speaker: Koichiro MATSUDA (Professor, College of Law and Politics, Rikkyo University, Japan)

Moderator: Jun-Hyeok Kwak (Professor, Sun Yat-sen University)

Discussant: Yihsoong YU (Research Associate, Sun Yat-sen University)

Time: November 23rd, 4:00pm-5:30pm

Venue: Administration Building 13, Room 106

Koichiro Mastuda is Professor of Japanese Political Thought at Rikkyo Uniersity, Tokyo. His research intersts lie in Japanese political philosophy with a focus on its authenticity especially in the early modern Japan. He was a visiting fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. And his recent publications in English include "Public Sphere and Political Criticism: From the Tokugawa Shogunate to the Meiji Period" in the Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese History (2017).

Abstract of Lecture:

In contrast to pre-modern China and Korea, where mandarins were selected by competitive examination, the hereditary status of samurai ruling class in Japan was fixed. However, during the Tokugawa era (1600-1868), the management of the state affairs grew increasingly complicated. Accordingly, the efficiency and competence of government officials became a major issue of political debate.This lecture will examine arguments that sought to assess the competence of candidates for government office in the administrative structure of the Tokugawa regime.