Hello, you're very welcome to Long Reads, a jacoban podcast where we look in

depth at political topics and thinkers. My name's Daniel Finn, and the features

editor here at Jacoban, and I'll be presenting the show. For many years now

Japan has been one of the leading players in global capitalism with the world's

third largest economy and some of its most renowned manufacturing firms. Japan is

one of the few countries to have bridged the infamous gap between the West and

the rest. But alongside the development of capitalism in Japan, a powerful

socialist tradition has also taken shape in Japanese political and intellectual

life. Our guest today is Gavin Walker. Gavin teaches history at McGill University

in Canada, and he's the author of the sublime perversion of capital, Marxist

theory, and the politics of history in modern Japan. He's also the editor of a

new collection of essays on the legacy of 1968 in Japan, the Red Years. You've

written about the importance of Marxism in Japan, both as a political movement

with more than one organizational form and as an intellectual tradition. You've

also note the fact that it hasn't received the same intention as Marxist

political organizations and theoretical work in countries where European

languages are spoken, perhaps for obvious reasons. Before going into the story of

Japanese Marxism and socialism in detail, could you perhaps give a bird's eye

view of its most striking features for someone who's maybe not familiar with

Japanese politics or intellectual life? Yes, absolutely. I would say a couple of

things to begin with. One is one of the most remarkable things about the history

of Marxism in Japan is I would say its distinction from the history of Marxism

...