Nohonshugi has been severely criticized for the role it played as an ideological basis of Fascism in pre-war Japan. We certainly must remember that this criticism shows us an important defect of Nohonshugi.
Nohonshugi has, however, two other aspects we should take into consideration positively and scientifically. One aspect is that Nohonshugi was a significant constituent of the real life before World War Ⅱ. Our attention to Nohonshugi gives us a particularly indispensable point of view from which to recognize the historical reality of agriculture and rural life in pre-war Japan. This aspect is, needless to say, quite different from evaluating Nohonshugi itself.
The other aspect is that Nohonshugi has a critical point of view to the process of excessive modernization and rationalization in Japan. Nohonshugi has its defects, but it also provides us with a significant point of view to criticize modernization and rationalization which ruins our modern life itself.
A study of Nohonshugi in Japan is, no doubt, an important approach to advance and direct our modern life in a proper and rational way. Then we can no longer neglect Nohonshugi as an old concept which is useless to us.
