The Tokugawa Shogunate | Episode 2: Why Was Japan Designed by Tokugawa Ieyasu? ~How the Edo Period Created Modern Japan's 'Behavioral Patterns'~

In Japanese society, there are
behavioral patterns that are shared as a matter of course for some reason.

・High literacy rate
・Public safety
・A culture of reading the air
・Mutual aid
・Long-term orientation

Many of these were formed during the Tokugawa Shogunate system, which lasted for about 260 years.
The Edo period was the era that


created the 'social OS' of modern Japan.

① A high-literacy society created by Terakoya (temple schools)

The literacy rate in the late Edo period was:

・Men: 70-80%
・Women: about 50%

This was an exceptionally high level for the world at that time.
The significance is clear.

・Commoners could understand bookkeeping
・They could manage ledgers
・They could interpret information for themselves

This foundation created:

・A culture of documentation
・A culture of reporting, communicating, and consulting (Ho-Ren-So)
・An education-oriented society

.

② National isolation (Sakoku) = A strategy for maintaining sovereignty

National isolation was not 'stagnation'.
The world at that time was seeing domination progress through the flow of:

　Missionaries → Merchants → Military → Colonization　

The Shogunate:

・Blocked religious intervention in politics
・Limited trade windows (e.g., Dejima in Nagasaki with the Dutch)
・Selectively absorbed only technology

As a result, Japan achieved:
・A non-colonized nation

・Indigenous modernization

③ The 'order of the air' created by Nagaya (tenement houses)

Life in Nagaya was an environment of:

• Crowding
• Enduring
• Daily contact

As a result, it became rational to:
• Sense things

• Endure
• Cooperate

This is the prototype of modern:
• Queue culture

• Sense of order
• Culture of reading the air

④ Samurai = Administrative official model

Samurai in the Edo period were not combatants, but administrative officials.

• Priority on duty (role)
• Exclusion of personal feelings
• Acceptance of responsibility

These values were passed on to:

• Bureaucratic systems
• Corporate organizations
• Management ethics

⑤ 260 years of a 'non-war society'

There were no large-scale civil wars in the Edo period.
As a result, it became possible to have:

• Systems over violence
• Emphasis on public safety
• Commercial development

This is extremely unusual in world history.

Conclusion

The Tokugawa Shogunate built not a 'system for winning wars,' but


a 'system where wars do not occur'.

As a result, Japan became a society strong in:

• Education
• Order
• Cooperation
• System operation

Essence

Japan did not suddenly become excellent.

The 260-year social experiment known as the Edo period
created a 'structure for a country prone to winning'.

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Episode 3: Why Was Japan Designed by the Tokugawa Family? ~What Did the Meiji Government Inherit, and What Did It Destroy?~

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