1

Meiji Period
• Industrial revolution first appeared in textiles, including
cotton and especially silk, which was based in home
workshops in rural areas.
• Japanese shippers were competing with European traders
to carry these goods across Asia and even to Europe.
• Japan largely skipped water power and moved straight to
steam powered mills, which were more productive, and
which created a demand for coal

2
Meiji Period
• End of the feudal system
• Implement the Western ideal of capitalism into the
development of technology and applyed it to their military
• leaders inaugurated a new Western-based education system
for all young people,
• sent thousands of students to the United States and Europe
• hired more than 3,000 Westerners to teach modern science,
mathematics, technology, and foreign languages

3
Meiji Period
• government also built railroads, improved roads, and
inaugurated a land reform program to prepare the country
for further development.
• government was to be the guide, and business the producer
• government built factories and shipyards that were sold to
entrepreneurs at a fraction of their value

4
2oth century
Militarism
• Japan built an extensive empire that included Taiwan,
Korea, Manchuria, and parts of northern China
• Japan's large military force was regarded as essential to
the empire's defense.
• Russo-Japanese War began in 1904,
• 65% of employment and 38% of the gross domestic
product (GDP) was still based on agriculture but modern
industry had begun to expand substantially
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2oth century
Militarism
• World War I
• Japan used the absence of the war-torn European
competitors on the world market to advance its economy,
generating a trade surplus for the first time

• By the late 1920s

• manufacturing and mining contributed 23% of GDP
• transportation and communications had developed

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2oth century
Militarism
• During the early stages of Japan's expansion
• Steel production rose from 6,442,000 tonnes to 8,838,000
tonnes over the same time period.
• Japanese aircraft industries had the capacity to
manufacture 10,000 aircraft per year

• Over the course of the Pacific War,

• Inflation was rampant
• Local industries were unable to produce at high enough
levels to avoid severe shortfalls.
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2oth century
Militarism
• maritime trade was sharply curtailed by damage to the
Japanese merchant fleet over the course of the war.

• By the end of the war,

• shortages,
• inflation, and
• currency devaluation

8
post-war period
• New factories were equipped with the best modern
machines
• Japan's second period of economic development,
As joined a well-disciplined and
• millions of former soldiers
highly educated work force to rebuild Japan.

• Japanese had extended their economic influence

throughout Asia and beyond.

9
post-war period
Occupation
• US assistance totaled about US$1.9 billion during the
occupation,
• 59% of this aid was in the
Asform of food
• 15% in industrial materials
• 12% in transportation equipment

• The economy benefited from foreign trade

• able to expand exports rapidly enough to pay for imports of
equipment and technology without falling into debt
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post-war period
Rebuilding
• The early post-war years were devoted to rebuilding lost
industrial capacity:
• major investments wereAs
made in electric power, coal, steel,
and chemicals.

• the economy not only recovered its lost momentum but

also surpassed the growth rates of earlier periods.

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post-war period
Rebuilding
• The world's highest literacy rate and high education
standards were major reasons for Japan's success in
achieving a technologicallyAs
advanced economy.
• the economy opened itself to international competition in
some industries and developed heavy and chemical
manufactures.

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post-war period
Rebuilding
• textiles and light manufactures maintained their
profitability internationally, other products, such as
automobiles, electronics, ships,
As and machine tools assumed
new importance.

13
post-war period
Oil Crises
• The 1973 oil crisis shocked an economy that had become
dependent on imported petroleum
As
• Changing price conditions favored conservation and
alternative sources of industrial energy.
• Advances in microcircuitry and semiconductors
• led to new growth industries in consumer electronics and
computers
• higher productivity in pre-established industries
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post-war period
Factors of Growth
• Nation's prewar experience
• Level and quality of investment
• Japan's labor force As
• High productivity growth
• Economies of scale
• Product diversification
• Circumstances beyond Japan's direct control

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post-war period
Changing Occupational Structure
• Japan's economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s was
based on the rapid expansion of heavy manufacturing in
such areas as automobiles,Assteel, shipbuilding, chemicals,
and electronics.
• The secondary sector (manufacturing, construction, and
mining) expanded to 35.6% of the work force by 1970.

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post-war period
Changing Occupational Structure
• Japanese economy began to move away from heavy
manufacturing toward a more service-oriented base.
As
• Jobs in wholesaling, retailing, finance, insurance, real
estate, transportation, communications, and government
grew rapidly

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post-war period
1980s
• the Japanese economy shifted its emphasis from primary
and secondary activities to processing, with
telecommunications and computers
As becoming increasingly
vital.

• Information became an important resource and product,

central to wealth and power.

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post-war period
1980s
• The rise of an information-based economy was led by
major research in highly sophisticated technology, such as
advanced computers. As
• Tokyo became a major financial center, home to some of
the world's major banks, financial firms, insurance
companies, and the world's largest stock exchange, the
Tokyo Securities and Stock Exchange.

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post-war period
1989 Economic Bubble
• Japanese asset price bubble
• was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 in
which real estate and As
stock market prices were greatly
inflated.

• The bubble was characterized by rapid acceleration of asset

prices and overheated economic activity, as well as an
uncontrolled money supply and credit expansion.

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post-war period
Deflation from the 1990s to present
• On 19 March 2001, the Bank of Japan and the Japanese
government tried to eliminate deflation in the economy by
reducing interest rates As
• Systemic reasons for deflation:
• Fallen asset prices
• Insolvent companies
• Insolvent banks
• Fear of insolvent banks
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post-war period
Deflation from the 1990s to present
• Economist has suggested that improvements to bankruptcy
law, land transfer law, and tax law will aid Japan's
economy. As

• In 2011 Japan under Yoshihiko Noda decided to consider

joining the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership

• Abenomics

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 References:

As

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