Development and Technology in Asia from 1540 to the Pacific War (The Origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy) - Hardcover

Howe

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226354857 ISBN 13: 9780226354859

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1996

Synopsis

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 that 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 Meiji shogunate 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 devise new economic institutions and to acquire new technologies, all the while retaining traditional values and institutions. 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 importantfoundation for Japan's current position as a world economic power.

About this title

Synopsis:

The emergence of Japan as an economic superpower is often considered both a miracle and the result of American aid and protection after World War II. However, Howe (economics, U. of London) demonstrates that the country's current position is the result of a historical and economic evolution. He examines how Japan's trade mastery began as early as t

About the Author:

Christopher Howe is Professor of Economics with reference to Asia in the University of London, at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0226354857
• ISBN 13: 9780226354859
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 472