Development of Japan's Industrialisation

Why was Japan able to industrialize?

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. Japan is the second world’s strongest capitalism economy country. Japan’s research capacity, industrial base and manufacturing technology are among the highest in Asia. Japan’s economy is very well, citizens have a high quality of life, GDP per capita more than forty thousand U.S. dollars in the world. Japan is one of the richest countries in the world, the most economically developed and the highest standard of living. Japan’s economy is so well because of industrialized. There were three main factors that Japan industrialized, introduction foreign technology, stable import dependence and hard working cautious labors. These three main factors caused Japan’s economic prosperity and became the only Asian member of “Group of eight” (G8). The factor “introduction foreign technology” let Japanese technology more advanced than before. The factor “stable import dependence” let Japan had stable industrial raw materials to industrialize, and the factor “hard working cautious labors” was indispensable in Japan industry. Japan was able to industrialize because introduction foreign technology, stable import dependence, and hardworking cautious labors.

Thesis Statement: Japan was able to industrialize because of the introduction of foreign technique, stable import dependence and hardworking cautious labors.

The Tokugawa Shogunate, also known as the Tokugawa Bakufu and the Edo Bakufu, was a feudal Japanese military government which existed between 1600 and 1868. The heads of government were the shoguns, and each was a member of the Tokugawa clan. The Tokugawa Shogunate ruled from Edo Castle and the years of Shogunate became known as the Edo period. This time is also called the Tokugawa period. In 1868 the Tokugawa shogun, lost his power, than emperor Meiji started to control Japan. During 1868~1912, the important revolution in government system; traffic; education; new technology…Japan became a strong country. Japan had regained complete control of its foreign trade and legal system, by fighting and winning the wars.

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Japanese industry expanded, both in light export industries like textiles, which were necessary to pay for the raw materials needed from abroad, and also in heavy industries like steel and shipbuilding. Cities grew, as more Japanese moved from farming into jobs in factories and offices. In the countryside larger landlords came to own more and more land, and the number of poor tenants increased. Always dependent on foreign trade, Japan was hard hit by the world depression that began in 1929. The farmers who had grown the silk that was exported to the United States found no market for their product once the roaring twenties and the craze for silk stockings collapsed with the stock market crash. Japan’s dramatic economic growth slowed, and social problems increased, especially in the countryside. At the same time that the leaders of imperial Japan pursued modernization and economic growth, they continued to address the issue of Japan’s unequal status in the international order. In 1894, more than forty years after Commodore Perry pried Japan open to the outside world, Japan finally succeeded in revising the unequal treaties so that it regained its legal parity with the Western powers. In Sino-Japanese War(1894~1895), Japan defeated China in the war for Korea, Japan over the control of Korea and also gained Taiwan and Penghu island. In Russo-Japanese War, Japan went to war with Russia over Russian eastward encroachment in Asia, and in 1910, Japan expanded its empire, annexing Korea. Japan became a huge empire.

From the proto-industrial base, Japan’s agricultural productivity was high enough to sustain substantial craft (proto-industrial) production in both rural and urban areas of the country prior to industrialization. When the United States forcibly “opened Japan” in the 1850s, Japan’s prospects seemed dim indeed. However, Tokugawa achievements: urbanization, road networks, rice cultivation. Tokugawa Japan (1600~1868) the development of proto-industrial (craft) production by merchant houses in the major cities like Osaka and Edo (now called Tokyo) and its diffusion to rural areas after 1700, and the promotion of education and population control among both the military elite (the samurai) and the well-to-do peasantry in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Tokugawa political economy: daimyo and shogun preventing daimyo from cementing alliances with other countries .The samurai military were forced to abandon rice farming and reside in the castle town. As a result irrigation ditches were extended throughout the valleys, and riverbanks were shored up with stone embankments, facilitating transport and preventing flooding. Quick emulated western organizational forms and western techniques in energy production, like coal and the other fossil fuels to generate steam power. During 1887 to1938 infrastructure and manufacturing expand.

In 1852, Shimazu Nariakira, built Japan’s first industrial complex. On the basis of the Japanese sprit of craftsmanship for iron and pottery which had attained pre-eminence in the pre-industrial. Strongly motivated by considerations of national security, heavy industry emerged successfully and competitively, Japanese simply borrowed the best of Western technology and moulded it to fit the needs. Iron and steel production, shipbuilding and armaments, fuelled by abundant Kyushu coal created a new foundation for Asia’s first industrial revolution. Technology was transferred from Satsuma to northern Japan, Kamaishi, to make the first large-scale iron furnace. In the Meiji period, Japan’s history of trial and error iron-making bore fruit and contributed to the birth of the first large scale furnace, in Kitakyushu, in 1901. The first modern coal mine in Japan was on Takashima Island. Iwasaki completed to develop it as Japan’s first modern coal mine. People’s efforts, dreams, ingenuity, and sweat in a drive to build a nation strong enough to survive under any circumstances. These industrial heritage sites are of the highest cultural significance. The first modern coal mine in Japan was on Takashima Island. Iwasaki completed to develop it as Japan’s first modern coal mine. People’s efforts, dreams, ingenuity, and sweat in a drive to build a nation strong enough to survive under any circumstances. These industrial heritage sites are of the highest cultural significance.

1853, when the United States sent Commodore Matthew C. Perry to Japan with a letter to the emperor, and orders to obtain a treaty. The first involved the lucrative China trade. The second was the need for a refueling station for the coal-powered, Japan happened to have plenty of coal. It appeared as if Japan might be headed for the same fate as China, to eventually lose central control to competing spheres of foreign influence. The Tokugawa clan was now blamed for the shame which the unequal treaties had inflicted upon Japan, in the end, the Tokugawa Shogunate was overthrown. At the same time a new emperor ascended the throne. From 1867 to 1912, remains unparalleled in history. 1876, the old class system of Japan was abandoned. With astounding speed, universities were founded, telegraph and railroad lines cross-crossed the country and a national postal system set up. The shipping and textile industries took off. How was such progress at such a rate possible? They borrowed the best of the West and molded it to fit Japan’s needs. A simple baseball story illustrates how enthusiastically and effectively the Japanese borrowed and adapted from other countries during the Meiji Era. 1871, Iwakura Tomomi, they spent several months each in the United States, England and Europe, and studied everything they encountered from banking systems to zoos. Some students stayed behind in different countries with host families for years of foreign education before returning home. The new innovations seemed, they also came at a price. Harsh working conditions and exploitation of workers, this threatened traditional culture. We would do better to treat China and Korea in the same way as the Western nations. In this idea lay the roots of Japanese imperialism.

The First World War was -in excellent chance for manufacturers. Japan foreign trade increased four-fold during the war. At the same time, a larger market opened up for the underdeveloped countries of the Pacific area. In Japan, price rose hit all consumers .There were serious social strains and unrest, culminating in the rice riots of 1918. In short, the war benefited Japan both directly and indirectly and when it was over she was apparently poised to make further gains. Tokyo earthquake of 1923, consolidating the position of the zaibatsu. Rapidly growing cotton textile and light manufacturing industries. After 1931, the war-related industries, which used advanced technology, began to grow rapidly.

Conditions of labors: A system of seniority which virtually guaranteed lifelong employment to the loyal male worker.

Economic crisis: From 1937, industrial effort was concentrated on iron and steel, aircraft, tanks and automatic weapons. Once the conflict had been begun by the attack Pearl Harbor in December 1941, aggravated the hardships of the civilian population. The armed forces were abolished.

Recovery: In 1946, a major land reform was initiated aimed at abolishing the allegedly militaristic landlord class by transferring land ownership to the peasants. Reform thus tended to have a two-fold action. It expanded the home market for industrial goods of the kind consumed by rural households, and it released labors for employment in the cities. Meanwhile, the whole capitalist world, from the early 1950s, entered into an unprecedented long-term phase of expansion and prosperity. By the early 1960s, Japan’s rapid resurgence had begun to attract the attention of outside observers who saw it as one of the most astonishing success stories of all time.

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