Research Information System
Global Studies Quarterly, vol.5, no.3, pp.1-12, 2025 (Scopus)
This article argues that Inazo Nitobe (1862-1933) was a norm entrepreneur of racial equality for Japan at the beginning of the 20th century when the colonialist and racist international order was prevalent. The basic claim is that Nitobe, through his magnum opus, Bushido: The Soul of Japan, depicted Japan in a comparative philosophical manner for racial equality between Japan and the West. Although Nitobe's book did not provide implications for a general norm of equality between races, it aimed to establish the possibility of viewing a non-Western state and people as equal. In this respect, by bridging Nitobe's political beliefs along with his desire to become a bridge between East and the West, the article intends to represent Nitobe's attempt at norm entrepreneurship in Japan as early as the beginning of the 20th century, where scientific racism and hierarchy of races were the norm. By taking Nitobe's example as a case study, the article endeavors to display the dual claim of the existence of non-Western and non-state forms of agency's impact on the development of 20th-century international society in general and rectify the understanding of agency solely confined to state-centrism in the case of Japan in particular. It is presumed that by confining agency of the non-West solely to the state and state officials, International Relations historiography misses the existence of actual historical interactions between peoples and societies in the process and contestation of international norms, which have ramifications for the development of modern and contemporary world order.