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The Neo-Confucian idea of self-cultivation has a long history of being applied to economic life in Japan. This paper looks at this history, beginning with the early development of the idea of self-cultivation in Sung China and its adoption into Japan and further development during the Tokugawa and modern periods. The analysis focuses on two intertwining themes: 3rst, the attempt to 3nd “spiritual” meanings for economic labor, and second, the instrumental use of such meanings by elite groups to promote particular economic and political purposes. The Neo-Confucian concept of self-cultivation aided both of these efforts, and thus an analysis of its use by academics, businessmen, and social philosophers over the centuries offers interesting insights on the broader topic of the relationship between religious values and economic life in modern Japan. It also raises important issues concerning the 3ne line between the use of self-cultivation as a spiritual end in itself and as a means to ultimately political or economic ends. A further theme involves the blurring of the boundaries between “religion” and “secular,” and “spiritual” and “commercial,” that seems to characterize most applications of the concept of self-cultivation to Japanese economic life whenever it has been used.

On the boundary between “religious” and “secular”: The ideal and practice of Neo-Confucian self-cultivation in modern Japanese economic life