Stellenbosch University (SU) recently hosted the fourth Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Chair lecture which featured a panel of highly accomplished international scholars. The lecture was facilitated through SU’s Japan Centre in collaboration with JICA, and took place on 29 August 2024.
The JICA Chair Lecture is a global lecture series that brings together experts from Japan and various parts of the globe to inform international audiences about Japan’s modernisation pathway and development experiences.
Prof Shinichi TAKEUCHI, Director, African Studies Center, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Prof Takeuchi presented the first lecture entitled ‘Governing Land Rights in Japan: Interventions from Above, Responses from below’. His lecture focused on two reform processes – the Land Tax Reform and the Land Reform – which instigated economic and political reform in Japan.
According to Prof Takeuchi, the Land Tax Reform was passed in 1873 following a period of strong feudal laws and warrior rule where peasants were required to pay heavy taxes. One of the primary objectives of the Land Tax Reform was to establish a modern and impartial tax system in which every citizen shared the burden. But although the new Land Tax Reform was integral to capitalist development and state building of modernised Japan, it exacerbated rural poverty by excluding tenants from holding land rights.
The Land Reform, passed in 1946, was launched after Japan’s defeat in the second world war when the country was under US occupation. The US declared that the landlord system should be dismantled so that rural societies could be democratised.
Says Prof Takeuchi: “The two land reforms significantly advanced Japan’s modernisation process. The one pushed the country on the road to capitalistic development, while the other played a deciding role in democratising rural society.”
He added that Japan’s experiences of land reform and the implications thereof, should not be ignored when African governments and role players discuss land reform.
Prof Motoki TAKAHASHI, Former Director, Center for African Area Stucies Kyoto University and Professor Emeritus, Kobe University
In his lecture, ‘Lessons for Structural Transformation from Below in South Africa: Respect for Craftspersonship as a Key’, Prof Takahashi makes the point that to achieve inclusive development and reduce unemployment, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) should be promoted in Africa.
“Broad-based industrial development is needed for desired structural transformation from below. It is therefore important to promote informal and micro enterprises so that they can become leading players in industrialisation. Governments should thus make an effort to support MSME development and the formalisation of the informal sector with a long-term perspective.”
He added that it might be valuable to introduce lessons from Japan’s process of MSME development and industrialisation which saw the country become the forerunner of manufacturing development in the non-western world.
“It (industrialisation) started with a process of modernisation, called the Meiji Restoration, which began in 1868. In this period, the Samurai and other statuses were abolished and activities of craftspeople were liberated. Some craftspeople, not necessarily highly educated, started to exert ingenuity and attempted to invent and innovate. They learned from Western technologies by examining functions of important machinery through reverse engineering and adapting foreign technology to domestic needs.”
This modernisation process generated a number of Takumis, craftspeople with competent skills, who contributed to manufacturing-led development from the 19th to the 20th century. Some Takumis became leaders of global manufacturing giants such as Toyota, Panasonic and Honda.
Prof Takahashi believes that the future of African development hinges on whether African Takumis’ ingenuity can be released and mobilised for integrated national development.
“I hope that not only leaders in policy-making, but also bankers and financiers in Africa and South Africa would respect craftspersonship and consciously focus on mobilising craftspeople’s skills and ideas.”
Prof Cheryll WALKER, Emeritus Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Stellenbosch University
Prof Walker’s presentation ‘Bridging Siloes: Law, Land Reform and Redistributive Justice in South Africa’ drew on the book Beyond Expropriation without Compensation: Law, Land Reform and Redistributive Justice in South Africa which she co-edited with Olaf Zenker and Zsa-Zsa Boggenpoel.
The book proposes that the debate on land reform in South Africa needs to move beyond the obsession with amending the property clause in the Constitution. It argues that a more equitable redistribution of wealth and resources in contemporary SA should include, but not define land reform. The publication is also shaped around concerns that although all three domains – law, land reform and redistributive justice – speak to each other, much of the serious academic and policy work on these issues takes place within siloes.
“Given the inequalities in SA, redistributive justice requires redistributive strategies to bring about this fair distribution. And this in turn, requires a hard-headed and multifaceted understanding of transformational change that recognises the need for strategic choices,” says Prof Walker.
She highlighted major points discussed in the book. This includes the agreement among authors that the Constitution itself is not an impediment to land reform and that just and equitable compensation can legitimately be interpreted to mean zero compensation under certain circumstances. Another significant theme is that land reform needs to be looked at in relation to other mechanisms for redistributive justice such as transformation tax (one-off capital levy on wealth above a certain threshold) and a basic income grant as an expression of citizens’ rightful share.
“The argument is not that land and land reform are unimportant, but that conflating redistributive justice with the redistribution of land fails to appreciate the full complexity of contemporary social, economic and ecological conditions and the multi-dimensional nature of transformational change.
“Managing a transformational triage (hard choices about what you prioritise and how) calls for a strong state that is able to work strategically, negotiate trade-offs and manage the political fall-out that can be expected to follow as priorities are set. It also calls for strong and principled leadership to build a sufficiency of social consensus,” says Prof Walker.
Although focusing on different historical periods in Japan and South Africa, the lectures all drew attention to the complex nature of socio-economic development and some of the major structural factors that can advance or impede societal change over time.