Remake, Remodel

Why medieval Japan may have the answers to a sustainable economy

The 2024 adaptation of the James Clavell novel Shōgun made by the Disney subsidiary FX is not just a masterly piece of television, it is also an audacious attempt to push beyond the historical ventriloquism of the novel by conducting the vast majority of the dialogue in Japanese with English subtitles. It was a gamble that paid off handsomely, as among the show’s haul of 18 Emmys were the top three awards – best drama series, and best lead actor and lead actress in a drama.

The dramatic core of the book and the series is the uneasy relationship between traditional Japanese samurai culture and the colonial ambitions of European Christianity.

Despite the title, both end a little before the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, which united the country under a single shogun, ending 200 years of civil war between competing regional warlords. This was the beginning of the Edo period, which would last 265 years until 1868, and was distinguished by peace and stability but also by Japan’s almost complete isolation from the rest of the world.

My interest in this period of Japanese history was piqued by Roman Krznaric’s excellent book History for Tomorrow, a library of ideas drawn from the past which can be repurposed to help us transform our future. One of those ideas is the regenerative economy and Krznaric describes how the city of Edo – now Tokyo – came as close to having one as any city in history.

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