Abstract
To understand the present, one must know the past. Nature does not fly. History is a gradual but continuous process of change. The legacy of the long past survives even today. Then, how far should we go back in the case of Japan? Japan is an ancient country. Not going to the ages of mythology, one can still start at 660 b.c.e. when Emperor Jimmu established the imperial dynasty, which is still in reign today.1 However, we begin our historical discourse at the Tokugawa period when the entire nation was politically and economically unified. The Tokugawa feudal system is important to us, as many things were inherited from it by the succeeding period of modern economic growth. One cannot readily understand contemporary Japan unless one knows institutions that flourished in the Tokugawa period.
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