The Urbanization of Japanese Labor, 1868-1955

This book examines the transition from peasant agriculturalism to urban industrialism in Japan was in the hands of a merchant class wholly oriented toward an internal economic system when she entered the modern international world. Consequently, Japanese political administration assumed a large portion of foreign commercial and industrial activity, in its initial stages. Thus, her modern economic and industrial development served political purposes of those concerned with Japan’s international political standing. In this sense, Japan’s early modernization was a “planned” transition. The industries sponsored by subsidy and outright government ownership therefore experienced rapid technological change and expansion, while those industries devoted to consumer goods were left to traditional means of production. The demographic characteristics of Japan’s urban population clearly reflect this background. The organization of a manufacturing group along the lines of family structure was modified, but not destroyed, by the transition to urban industrialism. Thus, in marked contrast to Europe, where the family is primarily a consumer unit, in Japan is a productive unit as well. While the experience of Japan does not provide a blueprint for nations that are now undertaking industrialization, the unique evolution of her urban-industrial complexes has great abstract value, in corroborating the theoretical contention that there is a wide range of alternatives to the pattern of industrialization that prevails in the West. All those concerned with preserving the best of their existing culture, while moving into the inevitable world-wide urban-industrial future, will benefit and be encouraged by the example of Japan.