Review of Selected Books on Japanese Business History Published in 2019

Abstract

East Asia has made a remarkable economic development during the twentieth century. The aim of this book is to highlight a unique characteristic of this economic development and point out its challenge to the present world. Many studies on East Asia’s economic development presupposed the development model based on historical experiences in Europe and the United States. They understood the development of developing economies in East Asia as a process to catch up with developed economies in Europe and the United States. However, by conducting a long-term investigation covering a century-long period since the late nineteenth century, this book demonstrates that development patterns of East Asian economies are different from those of Western countries. In addition, by applying the same analytical framework to both Japanese and Chinese economies, which have hitherto been only contrasted with each other, it reveals that economies in the East Asian region consisting of China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan have developed, showing both similarities and differences. This challenging subject of theorizing development patterns of East Asian economies differing from those of Western countries is very intriguing. It is particularly worth noting that this book shows the following similarities and differences in the development of East Asian economies. With regard to similarities, first, a continuous economic development was realized intrinsically through the expansion of the domestic market. Second, the East Asian economies developed not as a closed chain within the East Asian region but as part of the global economy. As for a difference, the processes of economic development were different between Japan and China, because modern industries emerged at different periods. More concretely, in Japan, in which modern industries had emerged during the 1880s and 1890s, heavy and chemical industries developed during the interwar period, contributing to the advancement and sophistication of industries. Whereas, in China, in which modern industries emerged during the 1910s and 1920s, the secondary sector of industry consisted mostly of light industries, and the development of heavy industries was only limited. Despite these interesting findings, however, consumer goods industries such as the apparel and auto industries should have been included in the investigation in addition to core manufacturing industries dealt with in this book for the purpose of a better understanding of the economic development of East Asia, which has now become the “world’s factory.”