Social Consequences of Japanese Industrialization essays

Social Consequences of Japanese Industrialization essays Many scholars and historians in the academic community have always debated the question why Japanese achieve its economic performance during industrialization. This paper will briefly examine why Japanese manage to catch up its Western competitors and argue that in the 9 decades between 1880 to 1970, Japanese society was undergoing a series of social-economic reform which enable Japanese society accomplish rapid growth during industrialization. From the period of 1600 to 1868, Tokugawa Japan managed to develop well-structured road networks and riverbanks to enhance agricultural productivity, rice cultivation, seed varieties and planting methods. Increased agricultural productivity affords Japanese labour to move from the agricultural sectors to industrial based sector such as mining, manufacturing and crafting industries. After the collapse of the Tokugawa government in 1868, the new centralized Meiji government proposed compulsory primary education for the masses and elite university education intended to advance in engineering and scientific fields. In fact, compulsory education was extended to middle school after WWII and national universities established in each forty-six Japanese prefectures. The government started building railroad networks connecting major islands and deep-water harbour in preparation for large steamships. Monopolized tax authority also encouraged national government to propose the best agricul tural technique to increase its tax revenue. As a result, a well-developed infrastructure was built to facilitate flow of innovations and new technology. Also, compulsory education and concentrated studies in science and technology deepened society `s acceptance to imported western technologies and further prepared new generation to new ideas and methods in industrialization. In the 1930s, a segmented Japanese labour market was resulted of lacki ...