The Formation and Evolution of Japan’s Institutional Matrix as a Case of Institutional Hybridization

Economic, political and social transformations in various countries in recent decades have contributed to the relevance of studying the genesis and evolution of the institutional environment of social systems, and, consequently, the problem of features and directions of historical process. A case of particular interest is Japan, where institutions of both “Western” and “non-Western” types have been historically intertwined. The aim of this paper is to attempt a philosophical understanding of Japanese history by identifying its general trends and causes. The methodological basis of this study is the institutional approach, supplemented by the theory of institutional matrices (IM). According to this theory, the essential features of a social system are determined by its institutional matrix, formed by basic institutions of redistributive and market types coexisting under conditions of dominance-complementarity and regulating interconnected economic, political and socio-cultural subsystems of society. It is shown that Japan, unlike other countries, is characterized by a hybrid institutional matrix due to the peculiarities of its formation as a social community in the context of frontier colonization and isolation from its “root” social system. Hybridization of institutions during the formation of the social system predetermines the specifics of Japan’s development, which can be illustrated over a wide period of time. In particular, it was shown that when institutions were transplanted from outside into Japan’s institutional environment, they acquired certain elements of an alternative type. The preservation of Japan’s institutional ambivalence (the lack of a clear dominance of either redistributive or market-based institutions in economic, political and socio-cultural spheres) has been shown to be maintained up to the present day.

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