"Blame for the putative failure of liberalism in late-nineteenth-century Japan and China has often been placed on an insufficient grasp of modernity among East Asian leaders or on their cultural commitments to traditional values. In Personal Liberty and Public Good, Douglas Howland refutes this view, turning to an examination of the introduction in Japan and China of the seminal work on liberalism in that era: John Stuart Mill's On Liberty." "Howland offers critical analyses of the translations of the book into Japanese and Chinese, which at times reveal astonishing emendations. As with their political leaders, Mill's Japanese and Chinese translators feared individual liberty could undermine the public good and standards for public behaviour, and so introduced their own moral values - Christian and Confucian, respectively - into On Liberty, filtering its original meaning. Howland reflects on this mistrust of individual liberty and the reception of Mill's work both in Asia and in England itself, where his liberal vision was greeted with considerable apprehension."--Jacket.