SOCIOLOGICAL STUDIES IN JAPAN: Prewar, Postwar and Contemporary Stages.

This article presents information regarding state of sociology in the prewar, postwar and contemporary stages. It may not be an exaggeration to say that two fundamental streams of sociological research had already been established in Japan during the prewar stage. These were the so-called pure sociology influenced by European thought and applied sociology which was mainly concerned with the farming community and family structure within the country. TAKADA was well-known as a sociologist and an economist. His focus was on power theory which tended to be a synthesis of his dual orientation. This theory consisted of a system of propositions such as the law of correlation of different power elements, the law of acceleration in the growth of power and the law of levelling in the distribution of power. This basic idea was founded on the relationship between the desire for power and the instinct of subordination. It might properly be agreed that one of the critical defects of formal sociology in Japan was that it involved ceaseless debates on conceptual adequacy, confining sociology to a limited framework of ideas.