The Meiji Era and the Modernization of Japan...Part 1: Japan

» pseudoerasmus - Japan

I think Maria Christensen's account, at least insofar as it touches on the history of Japanese economic modernisation, is a highly traditional one in neglect of much recent work in economic history which stresses the continuity of the Meiji period with the Tokugawa period. That is, Japan had not been a complete economic basketcase until Commodore Perry showed up and the Meiji Restoration abruptly embarked upon forced industrialisation.

On the contrary, the Tokugawa Shogunate was an economically dynamic period in Japanese history, with much commercial & industrial activity and standards of living rising rapidly.

For a summary of this view, David Landes's chapter on Tokugawa Japan in his "Wealth and Poverty of Nations" is a good start, as are the first two chapters of Kozo Yamamura's "The Economic Emergence of Modern Japan". For the "new" social-economic history of Tokugawa Japan, try Susan B. Hanley's Everyday Things in Premodern Japan: The Hidden Legacy of Material Culture.

-- posted by pseudoerasmus