The Japanese Industrial Economy: Late Development And Cultural Causation (routledge Studies In The Growth Economies Of Asia) (volume 41)

This ground-breaking book reveals that the way to understand the Japanese industrial experience is to focus on the resources that the nation brought to bear on the task of responding positively - and in a sustained manner - to the superior technologies and institutions of the industrialised world, from the late nineteenth century. Japan's economic history is one of technology transfer and institutional transformation under conditions of relative industrial backwardness. Ian Inkster argues that the history of the Japanese economy cannot be understood without a theory of cultural engineering - a process whereby the industrialising elite managed cultural attributes specific to Japan in order to modernise the economy. This book reveals that the manipulation of culture was of more importance than the character of the original cultural stock in explaining Japan's modern industrialisation. Thus the features of private enterprise culture that are so often isolated as keys to the nation's historical competitiveness may have been only temporary reflections of this wider process of cultural engineering: a necessary input into the program of technology transfer and late development This book provides a highly reliable guide to the industrial economy and history which is accessible, and covers a wide ground; it will be of great interest those involved in Asian Studies, Japan studies, plus economists professionals in business and enterprise culture. This book reveals that the manipulation of culture was of more importance than the character of the original cultural stock in explaining Japan's modern industrialization. Thus the features of private enterprise culture that are so often isolated as keys to the nation's historical competitiveness may have been only temporary reflections of this wider process of cultural engineering: a necessary input into the program of technology transfer and late development.This book provides a highly reliable guide to the industrial economy and history and covers a wide ground; it will be of great interest to those involved in Asian studies, Japanese studies, plus economists and professionals in business and enterprise culture. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 Illustrations......Page 8 Preface and acknowledgements......Page 10 Introduction: achievements and outcomes......Page 14 Interpretations of Japan......Page 36 Maturity: social problems of Japanese capitalism......Page 48 Forging explanations: technology......Page 69 Cultural engineering......Page 95 The institutions of late development: private enterprise......Page 118 Nationalism and globalism: Japan in world context......Page 133 Notes......Page 144 Bibliography......Page 152 Index......Page 167 Prior to those quite recent social, commercial and industrial changes in Japan which have seemed to detract from its historical trajectory of ultra-fast growth, the nation was lauded as the best case of capitalist achievement.