Industriousness and divergence: Living standards, housework and the Japanese diet in comparative historical perspective

Abstract

Quantitative comparisons of living standards across Eurasia continue to conclude that the eastern side of the “great divergence,” including Japan, lagged behind the leading regions of Europe from early-modern times onwards. The “industrious revolution” model attributes this to the early spread in Europe of markets for labour and consumer goods. By contrast, in Japan, persistent household self-sufficiency must have precluded improvements driven by market participation. However, qualitative evidence on the history of the now globally renowned Japanese diet reveals how a different dietary pattern, involving continued household-based, non-market production activities, might nonetheless have generated improved living standards, even if these are invisible to quantitative assessment.