I. Why did the dissolution of the zaibatsu halt?
Amid the chaos immediately following Japan's defeat, postwar Japan's economic structure was on the verge of being completely restructured. As mentioned in the previous chapter, the New Dealers in charge of the GHQ Civil Affairs Bureau deemed large conglomerates such as Mitsui, Mitsubishi, and Sumitomo to be the "economic foundation that supported militarism," and ordered the dissolution of their holding companies and the separation of their affiliated companies. The idea was clear: rejection of the prewar system and the reconstruction of a new Japan through economic democratization.
However, history did not proceed in line with this ideal. Although holding companies were formally reorganized, affiliated companies were restructured and continued to exist as "corporate groups" even after the war. The networks of the former zaibatsu, centered around banks and trading companies, were preserved and continued to play a central role in the postwar economy. The dissolution of the zaibatsu became a policy that symbolized the gap between ideals and reality.
The background to this was the rapid arrival of the Cold War structure. The United States positioned Japan as an "anti-communist bastion" and needed to rapidly rebuild its economic foundations. Since a complete dismantling of the zaibatsu would have delayed industrial reconstruction, the United States chose to reorganize and preserve them. This is where the structure of "invisible occupation" emerged. The outbreak of the Korean War accelerated this trend.
However, this policy shift was not simply a geopolitical decision. Behind it was an ideological device that reorganized the mental structure of postwar Japan: MRA.
II. What is MRA? - An "ideological weapon" that combines religion, capital, and anti-communism
Moral Re-Armament (MRA) is an international movement founded in the 1930s by the American religious leader Frank Buchman. However, its true nature goes far beyond the framework of a religious organization. While masquerading as a religion, it was in fact an international anti-communist network, a "spiritual lobby" connecting capitalists, politicians, and military personnel, and functioned as an ideological device to reorganize the postwar order.
The central idea of the MRAs was "moral rearmament of the individual." However, this "morality" was a spiritual weapon to justify capitalism and oppose communism. Wall Street, the U.S. Congress, the religious right, and the military supported the MRAs, and they acted as their ideological agents.
Bookman, the founder of MRA, was not a man who preached religious awakening. As Garth Lean points out, "For Bookman, 'moral rearmament' was not a religious movement but a global struggle against forces he considered destructive." Needless to say, in the early Cold War in America, the target of this "struggle" was communism.
In postwar Japan, MRAs approached zaibatsu families and politicians, offering them a "spiritual absolution" by telling them, "You are not evil. You have a mission to fight against communism."
For the zaibatsu families, who were already in a deep psychological bind after the war, this exoneration had a tremendous effect.
MRAs provided the ideological energy to "revitalize" the prewar economic elite.
This ideological apparatus became the spiritual foundation that supported the halting of the dissolution of the zaibatsu, the formation of Japan Inc., and the reorganization of Japan as an anti-communist nation .
III. Yasuhiro Nakasone and MRA: The gateway to postwar conservative politics
MRA did not only approach zaibatsu families. From an early stage, they also extended their tentacles to the new leaders of postwar politics. A symbolic example is the young, rookie Diet member first elected in 1947, Yasuhiro Nakasone, who would later become prime minister.
Nakasone was told by the heir to the Mitsui zaibatsu conglomerate,
"If you go to Geneva, you'll be able to meet Kissinger, Rockefeller, and other big names in American politics and business." With these words, Nakasone headed straight for Haneda Airport. His destination was Geneva, Switzerland, where the MRA International Conference was being held.
At the time, Nakasone was still just an unknown, rookie member of the Diet. However, the MRA convention brought together networks from the American political, business, military, and religious right. While disguised as a religious movement, the MRA was actually a meeting place for the international elite and the hub of an anti-communist network.
There, Nakasone came into contact with many of the figures who would shape Japan's postwar conservative politics. His early connections with international networks helped him emerge as a prominent politician in later years, centered on anti-communism, pro-Americanism, and constitutional reform. Nakasone himself confessed in his book "Meditations" that "when I was young, I attended an MRA meeting in Geneva."
This episode is conclusive evidence that MRA was not simply a religious organization, but functioned as a device for selecting, nurturing, and incorporating postwar Japanese political elites into an international anti-communist network.
IV. The “spiritual exoneration” that stopped the dissolution of the zaibatsu conglomerates: The link between MRAs and Wall Street
The New Dealers in the GHQ Civil Affairs Bureau promoted the dissolution of the zaibatsu as a "denial of the prewar system." However, between 1947 and 1948, US policy toward Japan underwent a rapid shift. There was only one reason for this: fear of Japan's leftward shift.
The rise of the labor movement, the expansion of the Communist Party, the collapse of the landlord system due to land reform, and the weakening of capital due to the dissolution of the zaibatsu conglomerates - all of these were seen by Wall Street as the "collapse of capitalism."
This is where MRAs came into being.
Wall Street used MRAs as ideological agents, creating the following sequence: spiritual exoneration of the zaibatsu → halt to the dissolution of the zaibatsu → formation of Japan Inc.
The Mitsui zaibatsu was at the center of this movement. Mitsui was deeply involved in cultural exchange between Japan and the United States, sending students, researchers, politicians, and intellectuals to various parts of the United States. They had only one goal: to let people experience "America Wonderful" and instill a hatred of communism.
A Japanese woman (then 19) who participated in one of the exchange programs, Up with People, in 1971 recalled, "After, we traveled to perform in 50 cities in the United States,afer US,we went to Italy and Germany, countries that had also lost the war. Being exposed to the open space that is America changed my life completely. The Mitsui family was certainly involved. However, when I heard that this program was a spin-off from MRA, something seemed off."
V. The Birth of Japan Corporation: Preservation of Feudalism and Rapid Economic Growth
The fact that the dissolution of the zaibatsu was halted midway and corporate groups were preserved determined the economic structure of postwar Japan. However, this structure was not simply a "corporate group." It was a social structure that could be called a "corporate domain," cleverly inheriting the prewar feudal system and the wartime totalitarian system.
The system that Noguchi Yukio called the "1940s system" was a carryover from the wartime mobilization system. Lifetime employment, seniority-based promotion, in-house unions, the convoy system, and keiretsu control -- these are not postwar inventions, but rather an extension of the wartime system.
Corporate managers, especially the founding family, became "ie," employees became "vassals," and corporate groups became "han."
Toyota is a symbol of this. I hear that in the past, the homes of senior executives were lined up around the main Toyoda family estate, forming a castle town and a citadel. Some in the media, who had not lost their critical spirit until the 1980s, even mocked Toyota as the "Mikawa Domain Automobile Manufacturing Plant."
Companies were feudal lords, employees were vassals, and castle towns were affiliated companies - this feudal structure supported Japan's rapid economic growth after the war. However, this "feudal" structure was accompanied by the thorough exploitation of subcontracting companies.
Rapid economic growth was achieved in exchange for long working hours for workers, exhaustion for subcontractors, unpaid work for women, and depopulation of rural areas. Nevertheless, people believed that "the meaning of life lies in devoting oneself to one's company." Companies became a substitute for the state, and employees pledged loyalty to them.
This mental structure was supported by MRAs, who gave "mental absolution" to zaibatsu and politicians in the early postwar period.
At the height of the Zenkyoto movement, voices calling corporations evil were rising. MRA justified a corporate-centered society by telling its employees that corporations are not evil and that they have a mission to fight communism. This ideology has sunk deep into the corporate culture of postwar Japan and continues to have an impact today.
Japan's rise as an economic superpower could pose a new threat to the U.S. Therefore, the true strategic intention of the U.S. was to prevent Japan's economic power from growing beyond a certain level.
The Plaza Accord of 1985 was the embodiment of this strategy. The strong yen undermined Japan's export competitiveness, monetary easing created a bubble, and the collapse of the bubble acted as a "second bottle cap" that forced the dissolution of Japan Inc.
VII. Visits to Yasukuni Shrine and the "Politics of Memory" - The Contradiction Between Denying the Prewar Period and Inheriting It
Yasukuni Shrine is a symbol of the prewar system. Postwar Japan was established on the premise that acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration meant a denial of the prewar era. Therefore, visiting Yasukuni Shrine is a de facto rejection of that spirit, and invites criticism that "the war is not over yet."
Regarding visits to Yasukuni Shrine, LDP lawmakers explain that "it is natural to pray for those who sacrificed their lives for the country." However, their true intentions are a performance aimed at conservative voters. Visits to Yasukuni Shrine are an act based on political calculation rather than ideology, and are a device to solidify support bases.
Visits to Yasukuni Shrine garner the support of conservative voters in domestic politics, but draw criticism internationally. China and South Korea perceive visits to Yasukuni Shrine as "affirming the prewar era" and "glorifying the war of aggression," and this can become a spark that worsens diplomatic relations.
The Yasukuni issue exposes to the international community the structure in which postwar Japan has drifted between "denying the prewar era" and "continuing the prewar era." Yasukuni Shrine is a politics of "memory and illusion," and has become a device that uses prewar memories as illusions and incorporates them into postwar political voting strategies.
VI. Dual military and economic subordination: the security system as the "bottle cap"
Japan Inc.'s prosperity was supported not only by a domestic feudal structure, but also by an international structure of subordination to the United States. The symbol of this is the Japan-US Security Treaty.
When the old security treaty was signed in 1951, Dulles stated, "We have the right to station as many troops as we wish, wherever we wish, for as long as we wish." This was a de facto continuation of the occupation and a device that prevented Japan from becoming independent.
In the 1971 meeting between Kissinger and Zhou Enlai, Zhou Enlai expressed concern that Japan, now an economic superpower, might see a resurgence of militarism. Kissinger responded, "The Security Treaty is a bottle cap that prevents the resurgence of militarism. But it was a mistake to turn Japan into an economic superpower."
This statement suggested the need for economic dependence, not just military dependence.
I will go into more detail about the bottle cap in a separate article.
Conclusion: MRA is the “shadow architect” of postwar Japan
As we have seen, postwar Japan maintained its economic structure by "incompletely dismantling the zaibatsu," resulting in the formation of "Japan Inc." The Japan-US Security Treaty forced military dependence, while the Plaza Accord and the collapse of the bubble economy institutionalized economic dependence. Visits to Yasukuni Shrine were used to refute the prewar era and gain political support from conservative voters.
Military dependence, economic dependence, memory and illusion -- these three mechanisms combined to send postwar Japan adrift.
The starting point for this was the "ideological apparatus" known as MRA. MRA was not a religious movement, but rather a "shadow architect" who reorganized the mental structure of postwar Japan.
Although the military occupation of Japan has ended, the occupation by financial, ideological and military networks continues.
Is the war over, or is it still ongoing?
Since the end of the war, Japan has continued to drift without being able to answer this question.
The Kōchikai and Seiwakai: Two Bloodlines of Postwar Conservatism
The "spiritual circuit" established by MRA led to the subsequent bifurcation of Japanese conservative politics into two streams.
One was the bureaucrat-led, economically-oriented, moderately conservative Kōchikai. The other
was the anti-communist, pro-American, constitutional reform, and nationalist Seiwa-kai.
Both groups were influenced by MRA, but grew in different directions.
In the next chapter, we will look at how these two trends shaped postwar Japanese politics
and led to its current drift.
Reference materials/literature
Garth Lean Frank Buchman's Secret
Daniel Sack Moral Re-Armament: The Reinvention of an American Religious Movement
Walter Isaacson & Evan Thomas The Wise Men
Yasuhiro Nakasone's "Meditations"
Masaru Sato, "The Trap of the Nation"
Tetsuro Kato, "The American Occupation of Japan and the Cold War,"
Yutaka Yoshida, "Japanese Militarism,"
Yukio Noguchi, "The 1940 System"
Daizaburo Hashizume, "Sociology of War and Peace"