The three keys to successfully changing a society are an overwhelming force which leaves no hope of preserving the status quo, a curfew to assure the population that the new power brings law and order, and the continuation of the existing bureaucracy to effect the transition smoothly. That, in line with Machiavelli, holds for authoritarian societies; conquest and change of free societies generally goes through the stage of physical or cultural extermination.

McArthur tricked the Japanese into thinking that the new order was a mere continuation of their age-old beliefs. He did that by co-opting Emperor Hirohito into supporting the changes and particularly into renouncing his own divinity.

America didn’t change Japan substantially, but only unleashed a political process that had been brewing for a long time. America used the existing Japanese government rather than demolishing it, as in Iraq. The Japanese had a working parliament, and their democratic rights were lagging only a few decades behind the US, which had granted women suffrage only twenty-six years before. The notorious Japanese industrial monopolies were second to the American ones, which continued for decades after McArthur broke the Japanese monopolies.

Japan was not a strict autocracy – the military exercised considerable influence on the emperor. Japan was a crumbling feudal state with clearly emerging features of liberal rule. The Japanese had all the preconditions for democracy: a culture of learning, a certain amount of mutual respect, transcendent values, work ethics, and potential affluence. Extremely unusually among nations, the Japanese are innovators, and they eagerly experimented with a new social order. The wartime devastation signaled an end to the previous social order and made the Japanese receptive to a new one. The culture of discipline made the Japanese agree to the changes suggested by the strong occupier and approved by the emperor.

Japan now is not a participatory democracy in practice. Arguably, no country is; voter turnout of less than 50% hardly qualifies Western countries as democracies. The Japanese exercise unique self-restraint in their demands and liberties. The praised Japanese “consensus” is an expression of their inherent obedience to authority. Feudalism substantially survives in the economy (mega-corporations with huge political clout) and politics (factionalized parties). The bureaucracy has established itself as a ruling class. Radical dissent is almost non-existent. Brainwashing “to conform” is very high at all levels, notably in the schools and the media. Japan remains xenophobic, imperialist (if only economically now), and poised to rapidly transform itself in a major military power if threatened by China or North Korea.

Japan can slip into the contemporary Western-style decadence and superficial political turmoil mistaken for freedom of speech, but could just as likely become a high-tech military superpower under authoritarian rule.