Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. xxvii, 471 pages, 22 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps; 23 cm

Summary

1. For many in the West, the emergence of Japan as an economic superpower has been as surprising as it has been sudden. After its defeat in World War II, Japan hardly appeared a candidate to lead industrialized nations in productivity and technological innovation, and the "Japanese miracle" is often explained as the result of U.S. aid and protection in the postwar years. In The Origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy, Christopher Howe locates the sources of Japan's current commercial and financial strength in events tnat occurred well before 1945. In this revisionist account, Howe traces the history of Japanese trade over four centuries to show that the Japanese mastery of trade with the outside world began as long ago as the sixteenth century, with Japan's first contact with European trading partners. Although profitable, this early contact was so destabilizing that the Japanese leadership soon restricted foreign trade mainly to Asian partners. From the early seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth centuries, Japan developed in relative isolation. Though secluded from the scientific and economic revolutions in the West, Japan proved adept at finding novel solutions to its own problems, and its economy grew in size, diversity, and technological and institutional sophistication. By the nineteenth century, when contacts with the West were reestablished. Japan had developed a remarkable capacity to absorb foreign technologies and to adapt and create new institutions, while retaining significant elements of its traditional system of values. Most importantly, Japan's long-standing reliance on its own ingenuity to solve problems continued to flourish. This tradition, born of necessity, is the most important foundation for Japan's current position as a world economic power

Alternative title

1. Development and technology in Asia from 1540 to the Pacific War

Subject

1. Industrial promotion > Japan > History
2. Technology > Japan > History
3. Foreign trade promotion > Japan > History
4. 15.75 history of Asia
5. Commerce
6. Foreign trade promotion
7. Industrial promotion
8. International economic relations
9. Technology
10. Außenhandel
11. Technischer Fortschritt
12. Wirtschaft
13. Internationale Wettbewerbsfähigkeit
14. Internationale handel
15. Techniek
16. Hoogwaardige technologie
17. Commerce > Japon > Histoire
18. Promotion industrielle > Japon > Histoire
19. Commerce extérieur > Promotion > Japon
20. Technologie > Japon > Histoire
21. Geschichte 1540-1939
22. Geschichte 1540-1940
23. Japan > Commerce > History
24. Japan > Foreign economic relations
25. Japan
26. Asien
27. Japon > Relations économiques extérieures
28. Japon > Commerce extérieur > Histoire

Genre/Form

1. History.

Contents

1. 1. Japanese Trading World before 1853 and the First Cycle of Contact with Europeans -- 2. West and Japan before the Opening of the Ports -- 3. Kaikoku: The Opening of Japan, 1853-1867 -- 4. Early Meiji Modernisation and the Development of the Traditional Export Sector -- 5. Growth and Transformation in Japan's Trade and Payments, 1890-1937 -- 6. Role of Public Policy -- 7. Response of the Private Sector: the Foundations of the Cotton Textiles Industry -- 8. Achievement of International Competitiveness in Cotton Textiles, 1914-1937 -- 9. Building the Technological Infrastructure -- 10. Technology and Trade in the Strategic Industries -- 11. Technology and Trade in the Commercial Sector -- 12. Imperial Background and the Case of Taiwan -- 13. Economic Expansion of Japan in Manchuria -- 14. Japan's Trade and Direct Investment in the Chinese Textile Industry: The Elements of an Alternative Model -- 15. Conclusions.

Owning institution

1. Princeton University Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p. 431-459) and index.