Japan and South Korea (from 1920)

Like Germany, Japan already saw vigorous intra-Marxist debate, as well as debate between Marxists and bourgeois economists, as early as the 1920s. For example, early debates on the theory of value were already conducted in Japan during the 1920s. In Japan as elsewhere, these discussions were radically disrupted by fascism and war, and their protagonists were persecuted. Following the Second World War, they were able to re-gain a foothold, obtaining university positions in far greater numbers than their German counterparts. Thematically, the debates were similar to those in Western Europe and Germany; one reason for this seems to have been that important Japanese protagonists were able to familiarise themselves with Western European and German debates on Marx in the course of study visits.

During the 1950s and 1960s, among other currents there developed  the so-called Uno School, which was associated with Kozo Uno. Shortly after the Second World War, this economist had attempted to rewrite Capital. Wataru Hiromatsu should also be mentioned; he would go on to become an influential intellectual within Japan's New Left. His name is also associated with a specific current within the re-engagement with Marx, the Hiromatsu School.

In South Korea, too, engagement with Marx already occurred prior to the Second World War, during the colonial period; it was then however disrupted, mainly due to the division of the country in 1953, following the Korean War. Intense engagement with Marx began again during the 1980s, in the ambit of oppositional groups.

Hiroomi Fukuzawa has written an introduction to the Japanese Marxism of the period, "Aspects of the Reception of Marx in Japan." An overview of some of the protagonists and their writings can be found at the Marxist Internet Archive. The Historico-Critical Dictionary of Marxism includes an entry on the Hiromatsu School. Further information on Uno's reception history can be found in Jan Hoff's book Marx global ("Marx in Global Terms"). Seongjin Jeong has published the introductory text "Marx in South Korea" in the journal Socialism and Democracy.