Prioritizing Public Interest: The Essence of Shibusawa's Doctrine and Its Implications for the Re-invention of Capitalism

Abstract

Shibusawa Eiichi, an entrepreneur in modern Japan, insisted that morality and economy are mutually inseparable, and therefore compatible. Although this doctrine of “the inseparability of morality and economy” was regarded as the hallmark philosophy of Shibusawa, he is not the only one to advocate the compatibility of morality and economics. Adam Smith and Michael Porter have made similar assertions. Closely comparing their opinions with Shibusawaʼs opinion, however, turns up some inherent differences. Similarly to Smith and Porter, Shibusawa is fully in favor of the pursuit of private profit; but unlike them, he emphasizes that business should be conducted with public interest as the intended and primary objective in itself. The very order of “public interest first, private profit second” is the essence of Shibusawaʼs doctrine. I would argue in this paper that Shibusawaʼs doctrine has a great potential in re-inventing contemporary capitalism in crisis.