Pax America Case Study

The Japanese empire was in great power by this time period, and they thought themselves as the king of the East Asian race. Japan, the “old order”, also believed that some day Europe and America would take over their power and become the “new orders”(Doc A). Japan was one

Although Japan changed in many ways from 1853 to 1941, there were also many factors that remained the same throughout the history of Japan. One such continuity was the maintained existence of a figurehead ruler controlled by other political authorities. The feudalistic emperor of Japan was the supposed “highest, most powerful authority” in the land, but was actually controlled by the military leaders- the shogun. Similarly, the militaristic emperor of Japan decades later continued to remain a figurehead ruler controlled by military and government officials. In addition, Japan continued to remain reliant on exports in order to maintain its economy. As a result of Japan’s small geographical size, the island nation had few natural resources and was forced to rely on exports to survive economically. The nation also grew increasingly reliant on other nations to provide materials and supplies that it could not provide for itself. This complete reliance on other nations was seen illustrated when the Japanese military was provoked to attacking another superpower- the United States, in response to the 1940 United States embargo

(Doc. 8) In the 19th century, Japan began to see that the world was moving forward without them in technology and manufacturing. In addition, they also saw that their military was inferior to those of their peers. On the matter, Prime Minister Yamagata Aritomo said, "The protection of the nation’s line of sovereignty and the defense of our line of advantage are essential if we wish to maintain our independence and security... it is essential that we begin to make significantly larger appropriations for our navy and our armed forces." To reconcile this, the nation immediately made every effort to pull themselves out of the past and into the present by strengthening their army and diving headfirst into industrialism. (Doc. 8) Much the same as the British, Japan's rapid industrial growth led to expansion and colonization. By the late 1930s, Japan had taken control of both Korea and Manchuria, giving them more power and position than they had ever before come to know. (Doc.

In Peter Duus’ Japanese Discovery of America, the author shows the learning experience that Japan went through in order to become one of the strongest countries in the early 20th century. From 1797 when the first American ship arrived in Japan, to 1879 when President Grant visited the Meiji emperor, Japan, not one of the strongest countries economically and militarily at the time, had interactions with multiple countries that included Russia, England and Portugal. However, Japan’s Confucianism belief and the development of the Tokaido Road served as roots for their quick rise to modernization. Even though multiple countries were cooperating with Japan, the relations with the United States proved to be the most

Japan, as known today, is a world powerhouse in technology and innovation. It currently ranks third in GDP, bringing in over $4.9 trillion dollars per year. However, this has not always been the case. Japan is well known for its period of “Sakoku,” a Japanese word literally meaning “closed country.” From 1600-1850s, that is indeed what Japan was; Japanese citizens were not allowed to leave the country and no foreigners were allowed to enter. The country was completely isolated from the rest of the world, even in regards to trade. This was changed in 1854 by Commander Matthew Perry and his Navy squadron. With the Kanagawa Treaty, Perry ended Japan’s period of isolationism and pushed them into their future as a world power.

Showa: The Japan of Hirohito, edited by Carol Gluck and Stephen R. Graubard, seeks to find the answers to many questions that are commonly asked about Japan and its history. As stated in the title, this book focuses on the Hirohito era in Japanese history from 1926 to 1989. In the Introduction, Gluck states that there were two main issues for Japan in the twentieth century, “how Japan came to aggressive war and then to macroeconomic might” (xi). The unstable relationship between Japan and the United States is also an underlying theme of the book. The three chapters to be examined in this paper are, “The Useful War,” “The People Who Invented the Mechanical Nightingale,” and “Japan Meets the United States for the Second Time.”

Japan as a country had been emerging as a world

Prosperity with Exploitation and Social Unrest To Japanese economy, 1910s is definitely the era for growth, era for boom and era for wealth accumulation. The exports in Japan raised from 228 Million US Dollars at the beginning of 1910s to 603 US Dollars when the period ended. Its weighting to the world’s manufacturing exports rose from 1.8% in 1910 to 3.9% after 1910s. The GDP level of Japan climbed from 64559 million Gaeary-Khamis dollars (base year as 1990) in 1910 to over 100000 million in 1919.

Nonetheless, the 1990s was the start of a new American policy in Asia, specifically focused on Japan, and an unrelenting period of competition “between free-market capitalism and non-capitalist market”. However, the 1990s is dubbed as Japan’s lost decade, a time “the powerful and privileged lost while the ordinary people benefited”. The lost decade was a “period when the economy imploded, the asset bubble collapsed, banks teetered on the edge of insolvency, unemployment skyrocketed, suicides increased and the leaders of Japan, Inc. were tarnished by exposes of pervasive corruption”. The lost decade encompassed the loss of money, security, stable families, and the credibility of the nation’s leadership. Again, a part of the lost decade is corruption and “the vast majority of postwar prime ministers have been implicated in corruption scandals”. In addition, the corruption involved the Yakuza, a major gangster organization, they manipulated “bankers and bureaucrats to secure huge loans for speculative and illegal activities”. Therefore, this asset bubble “may have been a giant con game that enriched the mob at public expense”, a partial reason for why the bubble

Japan had recovered finish control of foreign exchange and legal framework, as a result Japan has built up to full independence and in the process has changed the whole

Between 1932 and 1936, admirals ruled Japan. Within government, the idea of the ‘Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere’ emerged. This plan called for Asian unification against western imperialism under Japanese leadership, leading to Asian self-sufficiency and prosperity. In reality, it meant an agenda of Japanese imperial domination in the Far East because of the domestic coup in

Japan fit grow to 1.0 to 3.0 is based on the following situation. First, the Alliance, technically the alliance with United States. It seems that the japan gain power from the alliance. Japan tries to recover from the World War II, and starts to think and refine its role, “in the global community as a responsible stakeholder”. From 1945 to 1960. “Japan and the United States revised the security treaty to upgrade Japan's status in 1960”, and it has flourished during that time. From the 1970s to the end of 1980s, japan become a “systemic supporter”. From 1990 to 2005, Japan become an important part of United Nations and the international affairs to achieve the global peach. And the next period might continue to 2020, the end of Cold War with United States. In sum of the power of Japan refers to the author, Japan is acting world-wide scale, but to some extend its power is limited due to the defeat in World War II and the alliance with United States. These information provide a nice background to understand how Japan fit into the flat world, and the impacts will run through all the development. That is why the author says Japan has “a global ordinary power”. Japan should keep the relationship with America and at the same time improve some other power. In addition to that, Japan is experiencing the increasing competitive power from other Asian countries. “Japan should be robust in its global reach in terms of market access to resources, technological cooperation, and official development assistance”. The author also give some advices to cope with the global world based on the situation of Japan. Bi- Bi-Multilateralism, Aggressive Legalism, Sci-Tech Fundamentalism, Human

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.

From 1952 to 1971, their GDP growth in a average is nine point six percent per year. From 1972 to 1991, the economic growth still average annual growth rate of four percent per year. There were many reasons caused this phenomenon, which were including the starting point of Japanese economy. The second world war destroyed the Japanese economy, killed millions of people, destroyed the 40 percent of the Japan's capital stock. Capital return rate was very high, so people had very strong and the investment and accumulation of more capital, it will naturally increase the growth rate of the economy. Second, Japan's high rate of investment and capital accumulation through the domestic savings rate, thus made the country's economic growth (Powell).

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.