Der erfolgreichste und moralischste Kaufmann zu Beginn des japanischen Kapitalismus

Ei-ichi Shibusawa was extraordinary successful in business while known as an ardent Confucian. It is notable that in his later years not only believing in the compatibility of Confucianism and business, he repeatedly recommended Confucian morality to the youth saying that they can solve many political and social problems, including even trade disputes, if people learn and practice that morality. But it is uncertain how much his Confucian learning contributed his success in business. It is plausible that one of his guiding ideas came from Saint-Simonian social philosophy, which he was exposed to in his early days while staying in Paris. Besides his experience and connections he acquired as one of leading bureaucrats in blueprinting the framework of Japanese modernization, the position he was given after coming back from Paris helped his business greatly later. In the era when almost all former warriors were learned, well or poorly, in Confucian teachings, none could make another Shibusawa. On the contrary, his colleagues were not free from feudalistic mind set in which public job or governing is placed always above trade as one’s status and could not understand Shibusawa’s decision to quit government to go into business. The fact that Shibusawa was in the strict sense never a warrior in the older class distinction but a son of a rich farmer may have contributed to his uniqueness as a leader preferring business to politics or governing.