Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Japans economic development
Japans economic development
Economic development of japan after wwii
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Japans economic development
Japan's economy went through stages of prosperity and depression. During the 1950- 1973 years Japan's economy has experienced a rapid growth period. Then the economy slowed down until the end of the 1980s. After the 1980s, japan suffered from an economic crisis for a decade. This decade is know as the “Lost Decade”. Some say you have to know your past in order to see your future. In this essay I will discus the major issues from from the past and present within the Japanese economy. These issues is what cause Japan to become the fourth largest economy in the world.
EDO Period
Tokugawa Ieyasu ruled Japan after Hideyoshi died in 1598. In 1603, the emperor made Ieyasu, Shogun and established his government in Edo (Tokyo). “Shogun means commander-in-chief or a country's top military commander in feudal Japan ("Shogun | Define Shogun at Dictionary.com",n.d., p.1).” The Tokugawa shoguns ruled Japan for 250 years.
Tokugawa Ieyasu was a strict ruler and had Japan under tight control. In 1633, Ieyasu successor shogun Iemitsu, forbid traveling and almost isolated Japan by reducing the contacts to the outside world. Trade relations with China and the Netherlands were limited. He also banned all foreign books. Despite the isolation domestic trade and agricultural production improved .
Although the Tokugawa government remained stable over several centuries, its position was steadily declining. They were faced with several problems: The financial situation of the government led to higher taxes and riots among the farm population, natural disasters, and years of famine that caused riots. This caused further financial problems for the central government. In 1868, the Tokugawa government fell because of the political pressure...
... middle of paper ...
... ailing or fledgling company by a business benefactor with a financial stake in the company("What is Capital Infusion? definition and meaning",n.d., p.1) ”) from the government. However, most of these companies were in too much debt to survive on bail-out funds.
Japan Today
Since the periods that I mention above, Economic growth continued after 2001, but the economy has fallen into recession three times since 2008. Government spending helped the economy recover in 2010. But, in 2011 Japan was hit hard with an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 and a tsunami. This disrupted the manufacturing in Japan. Since the disaster the economy has recovered. Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo ABE has made the government his top priority. In 2013, Japan was named the fourth largest economy int the world(National Foreign Assessment Center (U.S.), United States,1981, p.all).”
Issues within the Feudal structure of Japan were already occurring, even with the support of their 200 years of peace, which eventually played a role in the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate. Internal changes were already taking place within Japan with peace for over 200 years under the policy of isolation. This already set in place issues, which helped push the decline of the Tokugawa shogunate over the line after the arrival of Commodore Perry and the Western influence he brought with him. Within the Japanese Feudal System, merchants were
...ining power over its subjects. The Tokugawa instead took the wives and children of the shoguns semihostage in Edo to deter powerful families from taking over the Tokugawa. This is the way the Tokugawa handled the problem because they were no outsiders to Japan but they had many enemies within the state. The Tokugawa and Chinese, however, both closely maintained their contact with foreigners, especially in trade. The Chinese established the Canton system which limited the Europeans to trade in only one city and need a guild approval to trade. The Japanese solved this problem of foreign relations through directing all trade traffic to Honshu, a port city under Edo’s direct rule. This was significant because this direction of trade meant the Edo government could collect taxes on the products rather than another daimyo, drawing power and wealth away from rival families.
Over the past fifty years Japan has seen significant changes in all aspects of its society and the way it interacts with the outside world. For example, despite suffering a defeat in World War II, Japan soon became one of Asia’s greatest economic powers. In Japan in Transformation, 1952 - 2000, Jeffrey Kingston focuses on various aspects of change in Japanese society and politics in the period after World War II. These include the effect of the US occupation, analysis of postwar politics, the economic boom, changes in demographics, the treatment of women, and foreign policy and security issues. Throughout the book, the author tries and often succeeds to explain many of these changes as part of the legacy of the occupation. All in all, Jeffrey Kingston gives a thorough economic, politic and social analysis of this crucial period in Japanese history.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Tokugawa Ieyasu set up a government in Edo (now Tokyo) and the Edo period began. The Tokugawa regime adopted an isolationist policy that lasted for more than 200 years, cutting off exchange with all countries except China and the Netherlands. The age of the Samurai came to an end with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, and a new system of government centered on the Emperor was set up. The new government promoted modernization, adopted Western political, social and economic systems, and stimulated industrial activity. The Diet was inaugurated, and the people began to enjoy limited participation in politics. From around 1920 a democratic movement gained strength.
The Tokugawa period, also known as Edo period (1603-1867), was the final period of traditional Japan that lasted for more than 250 years (britannica.com,2013). The period was a time of internal peace, political stability, and economic growth under the Shogunate founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu. The Tokugawa Shoguns maintained strict control over the structure of society by keeping a firm control over what they were allowed to do and what they were not allowed to do.
In 1615, Tokugawa pass the law for military housing. Ieyasu created Sankin-Kotai or alternate attendance system. This required that each lord of daimyo to spend 6 months year spent in Edo. Policy kept daimyo lords on move and made them financial unstable. Tokugawa basically kept the lords in hostage while they were on move; this kept them from plotting against him. His government established Kyoto deputy. No one could visit the Tokugawa without the deputy’s approval. Marriage between imperial and emperor was to be approved by deputy too.
The U.K. and Japan seem natural subjects for comparison. British and Japanese observers alike have long been fascinated by the many parallels (and the even more numerous divergences) in the histories of these two island nations. Particularly interesting about these two was the "economic role reversal” which occurred between Japan and Britain over the course of the twentieth century. In 1900, the United Kingdom was the world's dominant colonial, financial and naval power, as well as a center of industrial production and technological innovation. Japan was a mere up-start, a precocious and aspiring, but still unthreatening, economic competitor in East Asia. The beginning of the twentieth century, and more accurately the 1950s, saw Japan and Great Britain’s economic “role” reverse. Although Britain has enjoyed healthy growth rates and rising standards of living over the past 100 years, it has been progressively eclipsed by Japan as an economic superpower and an international model. Indeed, Britain's accomplishments have paled in comparison to Japan's meteoric rise: while Japan has emerged as the outstanding economic "success story" of the twentieth century, Great Britain's relatively modest performance has been both discouraging and confounding.
Imperialism has not only influenced colonial territories to better themselves or to further the mother country’s realm of power, it also had a significant impact on the people’s culture, education, environment, and political systems. Japan and Britain were two imperial systems that countered each other in many facets but also had strikingly similar qualities that had helped them become strong imperial powers that needed one another to continue their position amongst others.
Ieyasu established his government at Edo, present-day Tokyo, where he had a huge castle. His was a stable, peaceful government beginning a period of Japanese history which was to last until the Imperial Restoration of 1868, for although Ieyasu himself died in 1616 members of his family succeeded each other and the title Shogun became virtually an hereditary one for the Tokugawas.
In conclusion, I tried to explain what experienced in Japan during the first years of rapid economic growth in terms of its social consequences. According to my argument, I tried to show imbalances which occurred with economic development in post- war Japan. In other words, economic development cannot appear as linear social development. Post- war Japan has witnessed positive and negative social consequences after implementing economic recovery. Therefore, we can say that society cannot always embrace economic development positively. Economic transformation brings its own waves and thus society fluctuates regarding its embracement. Japanese society received its share with this economic recovery during post- war period.
The Japanese Economy & nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp;& nbsp; The prewar economy of Japan was a Socialist economy and the country was ruled by an emperor up to WW2 and after WW2 it started to lean towards a mixed market economy until what it is today, although its government is Socialist it is leaning towards a mixed market economy. & nbsp; The Japanese economy is a mixed economy that leans towards market, it is like this because almost all businesses are run by private corporations or people. and that is the market of the economy. And the reason that they are thriving and are so competitive is because of the trade tariffs and quotas that the government has in place. These regulations include heavy taxes on some products.
Moreover, the context in which this book was written demonstrates that Japan is going through the financial affluence as well as the greatest boom since it is during the postwar period, much of the financial affluence had been caused by the consumerism in Japan. The author seem to be biased on this theme, despite the benefits consumerism has had on Japan, Yoshimoto goes ahead to give it a negative
...high power status, Japan had to have a self-reliant industrial common ground and be able to move all human and material resources (S,195). Through the Shogun Revolution of 1868, the abolition of Feudalism in 1871, the activation of the national army in 1873, and the assembly of parliament in 1889, the political system of Japan became westernized (Q,3). Local Labor and commercial assistance from the United States and Europe allowed Japan’s industry to bloom into a developed, modern, industrial nation (Q,3). As a consequence production surplus, and food shortage followed (Q,3). Because of how much it relied on aid of western powers, Japan’s strategic position became especially weak. In an attempt to break off slightly from the aid of the west Japanese leaders believed that it would be essential for Japan to expand beyond its borders to obtain necessary raw materials.
Economic recovery of Japan after Second World War can be divided into periods. As Kenichi Ohno states that 1945-1947 recovery period, Korean War in between 1950-1953, after this war Japanese economy had entered into high growth period and it basically lasted until 1970s. Throughout those years Japanese government attempted to achieve economic development with the implementing economic control and economic planning. At the second part of my research I will mention about economic development in order to have general framework what policies were implemented.
O'Bryan, Scott. 2009. Growth Idea : Purpose and Prosperity in Postwar Japan. University of Hawaii Press, 2009. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed December 4, 2011).