Looking back into the history of Japanese psychology from the standpoint of critical psychology and theoretical psychology, the impact of the occupation by the US-led Allied Powers after WW II was decisive. Although US occupation brought about some democratization of Japan, it resulted in the Americanization of psychology, by Behaviorism. With time, the adverse effects of this became apparent such as excessive scientism and individualism. As for the relationship between psychology and society, urgent social problems, including poverty, inequality and discrimination, tend to be avoided and psychology's complicity in these problems is not reflected upon. This requires decolonial approaches to the mainstream. But this alone is not enough. Since the end of the 20th century, qualitative psychology, work on the history of psychology, gender and feminist psychology and German Critical Psychology, among others, have opposed the mainstream. Although these critical approaches have achieved certain success, they have often lacked reflexivity and have not been able to collaborate and cooperate. The critical psychology movement that attracted the attention of the international psychology community in this century has not yet been fully established in Japan. If the goal of decolonial approaches is to study the psychological experiences of people not only in the mainstream but also those in a minority in Japan and to contribute to their welfare, approaches that seek to overcome the undue influence of Western psychology must also reflect on their private interests and to work together for the common goal. Psychologists who criticize the colonialist influence of Western psychology also need to examine themselves critically.

Authors:
Yasuhiro Igarashi, Yamano College of Aesthetics, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
Yasuhiro Igarashi is a professor of psychology at general department of aesthetics, Yamano College of Aesthetics in Tokyo, Japan.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Wednesday Schedule

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