''Heimin'' (平民) is the Japanese word for

commoner A commoner, also known as the ''common man'', ''commoners'', the ''common people'' or the ''masses'', was in earlier use an ordinary person in a community or nation who did not have any significant social status, especially a member of neither ...

. The word first came into use towards the end of the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

to denote people who were born without any social privileges, contrasting them with ''

shizoku The was a social class in Japan composed of former ''samurai'' after the Meiji Restoration from 1869 to 1947. ''Shizoku'' was a distinct class between the ''kazoku'' (a merger of the former ''kuge'' and ''daimyō'' classes) and ''heimin'' (commo ...

''. ''Heimin'' mostly consisted of farmers,

artisans An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art, s ...

and

merchants A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as industry ...

History

During the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, Japan began a period of rapid

industrialisation Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...

and

Westernisation Westernization (or Westernisation), also Europeanisation or occidentalization (from the ''Occident''), is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in areas such as industry, technology, science, education, politics, economi ...

. By the 1880s, the

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

, who were once

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

in control of Japan, had lost a major part of their significance and power, which coincided with the rise of the ''heimin'' class. In accordance with the new period of Westernisation, Japan's social values changed, and economic status was eventually considered more important than a person's family history.

Tokutomi Sohō was the pen name of a journalist and historian active from late Meiji period through mid-Shōwa period Japan. Named Tokutomi Iichirō at birth, he was the older brother of noted author, Tokutomi Roka. Biography Sohō was born in Minamata, Higo ...

, in his essay ''Youth of the New Japan (Shin Nihon no Seinen)'', argued that the traditionalist outlook of Japan's

aristocrats Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...

was stifling economic development, as ''heimin'' suffered from discrimination and unemployment – in 1891, only 50% of Japanese politics and economics college graduates were able to find employment. Furthermore, only 2% of the population was allowed to vote, of which most were "landowners and capitalists". Sohō believed that Japan would not be able to thrive unless aristocratic " social parasites" relinquished their control over the country's politics and economy. Sohō also coined the term heiminism, to describe his advocacy for Japanese industrialisation and

democratisation Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic Regime, political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an Authoritarianism, auth ...

.{{Cite book, last=Tierney, first=Robert, title=Monster of the Twentieth Century: Kotoku Shusui and Japan's First Anti-Imperialist Movement, publisher=University of California Press, year=2015, pages=101

References

Japanese historical terms Meiji Restoration Politics of the Empire of Japan

History

See also

References