This essay argues that the pioneers of Meiji Japan did not merely learn Western thought passively, but generated Japanese translation terms through active questioning and deep reflection.
Using the uneasy rendering of “individual” as “kojin,” it highlights the strangeness of the modern Western view of human beings as separated from family and society, and re-evaluates the depth of Japanese intellectual power.

2019-03-26
It is said that more than half of the Japanese used today in newspapers and magazines consists of translated terms, and I believe that what created them was the Japanese power of thought.
The idea of separating a human being from society and family and grasping him as an “individual” is an abnormal view of man produced by the modern West, and it is only natural to feel a sense of discomfort toward it.
The chapter I released on 2017-10-18 under that title has now entered the top ten in search rankings.
What follows is a continuation of the previous chapter.
The struggles of our predecessors.
Hasegawa.
However, I think the pioneers of Meiji were not only learning, but also thinking.
In fact, when I saw the title “Japanese People Should Think Rather Than Merely Learn,” the first people who came to mind were the pioneers of Meiji.
From the end of the Edo period into the Meiji era, a huge number of Western books entered Japan, and it became necessary to master English, German, and French.
I think it would be fair to say that those who were desperately studying languages were, through that very process, also engaging in an intellectual struggle.
They were not merely passively “learning,” but were also “thinking” while asking themselves, “What in the world is this.”
The result of that effort that still remains today is translated terminology.
It is said that more than half of the Japanese used today in newspapers and magazines consists of translated terms, and I believe that what created them was the Japanese power of thought.
For example, the English word “individual” is translated as “kojin,” but if one thinks carefully, “kojin” too is somehow a rather strange Sino-Japanese expression.
If you wrote in a love letter, “As an individual, I love you,” it would feel extremely odd, would it not.
Since it still feels odd even now, it must have felt even more so at that time.
And indeed, the idea of separating a human being from society and family and grasping him as an “individual” is an abnormal view of man produced by the modern West, and it is only natural to feel discomfort toward it.
This strange translated term is proof that the pioneers of Meiji were “thinking” at the same time as they were “learning.”
We today ought to learn from the active and self-conscious way in which the Meiji pioneers absorbed such things.
This article continues.