Japan And South Korea Achieved Modern Economic Growth

In the era of globalization, international trade and international investments are expanding at exponential rates. Almost all developed countries are involved in Foreign Direct Investment processes, both in the form of outward and inward FDI. Among those developed countries there is the case of Japan that is different; Japanese attitude towards FDI has always been, in fact, very cautious. One one hand, Japanese outward foreign investment and exports have played a fundamental role in the postwar period of economic rise; on the other hand, the accesses to the domestic market by foreign investors, the so called Inward FDI, has been very limited. (Paprzycki, Fukao, 2008).

Two ships can arrive at the same destination; however that does not necessarily mean that they used the same route on their journey. Such is the same with the industrialization of Britain and Japan. Both rose to become the two great pioneers of the modern world; however the paths they took to success were different. This paper will compare Japan and Britain, exploring the causes of its industrialization, and how the countries drastically changed because of it. What sets Britain’s industrialization process apart from Japans is that it did not have a role model to base its development on; it was the first industrial nation. Therefore the cause of its industrialization must have much

For one, 90% of Japan's population, peasants, (as said in Document 4) were controlled and kept poor by their daimyo lord, even in times of economic growth. When the daimyo had complete control of their land, they could tax their vassals. As stated in the Feudalism powerpoint, ⅔ of peasants' crops were taxed, so they often starved. Even though, innovations in irrigation allowed more to be grown and sold, an economy can never go up if 90% of the population is dirt poor.

Between the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Japan’s economy developed remarkably. China had also developed economically; however, not near as much as Japan. The Japanese government industrialized greatly and encouraged western influence, but the Chinese government did the opposite.

After centuries of living in seclusion to the outside world, the government knew that they needed the technological advancements that the West offered. The Industrial Revolution and growing urbanisation in Japan had intended to and succeeded in mimicking Western growth. Moreover, the Japanese were well-known for their diligence, discipline, perseverance, and hard work – this resulted in substantial economic development including increased shipping of commodities and a significant expansion of trade and handicraft industries. However, the political elite pocketed most of the profits through influence and corruption. Workers and farmers found it unfair that their patriotic and back-breaking labour only received a little wage in comparison, but with a state-controlled media and education system, they couldn’t make their voices heard. So overall, this collective and nationalistic open-mindedness for communal prosperity was beneficial for Japan as a whole, but the common people were disadvantaged with no access to basic human rights and a fair

They gained more profit due to peasant and artisan classes became more productivity. During the Tokugawa period, the Japanese economy improved significantly because not only emphasis on the agricultural field,

The Tokugawa Shogunate era was a period of significant growth and change in Japanese society. There were two major catalysts that led to this development in Japan. Firstly, economic growth occurred due to a transformation within the agricultural sector. Merchant driven trade and market activity saw drastic changes in the work of the peasants. They moved from their agricultural land to the major cities. Trade increase led to the the creation of an effective and reliable transportation systems that allowed for Western and Eastern parts of Japan to trade. Improvements to the road systems and shipping networks were expanded under Tokugawa's rule. The influx of the population of Japanese in the city served as a major impetus for growth and change because the old notions of a static, agrarian-based economy were substituted for a well structured

Combining imported technology with their domestic innovation was translated in the inception of the Japanese low-cost mass productions system. Technological improvements such as the one mentioned above played a huge role in the country’s economic growth, as improvement of technology in one industry often influenced the growth of other industries. For instance, Japan’s steel industry was successful in improving the quality of steel used in manufacturing automobiles, due to the technological process in the casing of parts; the automobile industry too benefited and hence could reach a level where it could compete with its international

Granted that, the farmers were also expected to sacrifice their lives and resources for the “sake of the nation.” Even though the peasants were the ones engaged in heavy labor for Japan, the profusion of wealth did not trickle down to them. No doubt, the elites at the top of the social pyramid were the superior social class who benefited and enjoyed the prosperity. In addition to hunger, the Meiji era had an abundant amount of measures that were introduced, but the compulsory military service generated the most commotion. A profuse amount of parents was opposed, for they were perturbed for their sons. A simpleton in “a booklet published in 1879” made a valid argument that it is not fair to exhort farmers into the military since they would have to “give up even their last grain of rice and receive nothing in return” (19). Asking these people, who were already on the verge of death, to die for Japan is requesting far too much. Why should an individual fight for a nation that does nothing in return for them? What is even worse is that losing a male in the household to the military conscription meant that the family was losing one pair of hands to manage the farm. If a family in poverty was already having troubles paying bills and maintaining the field, losing a worker would not improve the situation at all. In conclusion, malnutrition drives a poor person to do appalling things while military service leads to horrendous living

With the growing underemployment of the classes came opportunity for ambitious men to carve out a place in the changing japanese capitalist economy. Many thronged to the big cities in search of wealth, and in turn, cities grew exponentially. Castle towns turned into bustling trade communities and roads leading into some of the major cities needed to cater to the needs of the traveling men. These

Japan emerged from the Tokugawa-Meiji transition as the first Asian industrialized nation. Domestic commercial activities and limited foreign trade had met the demands for material culture in the Tokugawa period, but the modernized Meiji era had radically different requirements. From the beginning, the Meiji rulers embraced the concept of a market economy and adopted British and North American forms of free enterprise capitalism. The private sector — in a nation blessed with an abundance of aggressive entrepreneurs — welcomed such change.

In 1945, Japan was devastated and lost a quarter of the national wealth after suffering a defect in the second world war. A majority of the commercial buildings and accommodation had been demolished, and massive machinery and equipment formerly used in production for the civil market were out of service to provide metal for military supplies (Miyazaki 1967). Despite the trash and ruins had left over in Japan, Japan was able to rebuilding its infrastructure and reconstruct their economy. It is revealed that the Japanese economy was on its way to recovery, which received a rapid development since the war, and the reconstruction of Japan had spent less than forty years to become the world’s second largest economy in the 1980s. This essay will explore the three factors account for the economic growth of post-war Japan: the financial assistance from the United States, the external environment, and the effective policy of Japanese government.

The deregulation of financial markets catalysed by Globalisation worldwide has impacted on the amount of trade within the Japanese economy beneficially allowing easier access to foreign currencies, facilitating a higher flow of goods between nation, by relaxing laws that severely prevented foreign buying of currency, and floating the yen. These drivers have helped boost Japan's trade and recovery from its recession. Technology has allowed finances to be traded and communication to be near to instantaneous. This has increased dramatically the amount of FDI into Japan largely thanks to the numerous strategies the Japanese government has taken to promote economic growth and hence development. Finance and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) have increased as a direct result of globalisation doubling from $63 billion in 2001 to $144 billion in

South Korea and Japan have had a close relationship from ancient history to the present day. Because of this reason, their economic growth and development have similarities and disparate differences. This paper will discuss some of the two countries’ major characteristics including geographic, social, and political characteristics and look at their histories and economies.

Japan ranks as the third largest economy in the world as of 2010. The GDP at current prices in US dollars in Japan was reported at 5068.06 billion in 2009, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Japan’s resurgence after World War II has however reached an inflection point in yearly 1989 after the burst of Japan’s asset price and real estate bubbles. As can be seen from the graph below, Japan’s GDP has hovered around the same level through more than 20 years of economic stagnation. The GDP’s slow growth has been exacerbated by the world financial crisis of 2008. A major landmark of Japan’s stagnation has been the BOJ’s fight against deflation.