Comparison of modernization waves in Russia and Japan over the past 150 years (institutional approach)

Aim. The presented study aims to structure the major elements of modernization policy and to conduct a comparative institutional analysis of modernization practices in Russia and Japan.

Tasks. The authors identify common and different elements in the modernization strategies adopted by Russian and Japanese authorities; determine the reasons for the success of the implemented policy and the reasons for failed modernization attempts.

Methods. This study uses general scientific methods of cognition and the institutional approach to analyze economic processes and examine the modernization policy in Russia and Japan over the past century and a half.

Results. Despite a certain connection and some similarities between modernization waves in Russia and Japan, the origins, driving forces, and, most importantly, the results of modernization processes in these countries have significant differences. Japanese reformers have the advantage of the inherently Japanese ability to adapt a variety of institutions to solve the urgent tasks of national development. The peculiarity of Russian modernization waves was their scale, along with a radical restructuring of basic institutions. This resulted in both the outstanding success and effectiveness of the reforms as well as their cost and incompleteness, which generated waves of counter-reforms.

Conclusion. By studying and comparing modernization waves in Russia and Japan, it is possible to identify the national specifics of problems associated with social reforms and factors that ensure favorable results of the modernization process. Institutional reforms play an important role among such factors. A criterion of their success is the ability to adapt traditional institutions to productive work in new conditions.

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