Tomohiko, NEZU

(The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, School of Cultural and Social Studies,
Department of Japanese history)

Key words:

Chuo Kouron, Editors, Intellectuals, “The Critical Circles,” “Realism,” 1960’s

This paper seeks to explore the ways in which the editor Kazuki Kasuya (born 1930) lead the movement of Realism (mainly taking place between 1963 to 1967) in the magazine Chuo Kouron since the Furyu Mutan, the incident of journalistic terrorism in 1961, from the viewpoint of journalism history.

“Chapter 1: The Formulation of Kazuki Kasuya’s Philosophy” follows the factors that shaped his beliefs. The shock after the defeat in World War II and his reactions to the texts of Eijiro Kawai influenced him to develop a view of “conservative skepticism.” His discontent with Marxism and his experiences as a university magazine editor bore fruit in the form of “Chapter 2: The Project Plans in his Years at the Chuo Kouron Sha.”

The next segment dissects the details of the theses as a whole in the projects planned by Kasuya during his time in Chuo Kouron. These experiences of Kasuya as editor founded the basis for Kasuya’s human networks, which allowed for his role as the recruiter of writers. This further illustrates the consolidation of the philosophical affinities that Kasuya shared with the president, Hoji Shimanaka who appointed Kasuya to this position of trust, as well as consolidated the structural human networks within the company.

“Chapter 3: The Unfolding of the Trends of ‘Realism” compares the authors of the opening articles in both Chuo Kouron and Sekai to evaluate the content of the articles of authors such as Masataka Kosaka, Shinkichi Etoh and Yonosuke Nagai who wrote “realistic” articles in Chuo Kouron. Given this, the possibility of a dialogue between “Realism” and “Idealism” was explored.

From the above analyses, this thesis demonstrates the model of “editor” as “producer”: As the attempts of an editor of a general-interest magazine, the editor constructed the 2-step networking of writers of the older and current generations. Kasuya also attempted to increase the chances for interaction between writers of the same generation with a shared sense of problems. Through this, the editor succeeded to lead a philosophical movement while building a team of writers, which proved the necessary qualities demanded of a true editor as in this example of Kazuki Kasuya.

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