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A High Standard of Living in Nineteenth-Century Japan: Fact or Fantasy?

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  • Hanley, Susan B.

Abstract

In an effort to begin to solve the continuing controversy over how high the standard of living was in Japan prior to industrialization, this paper goes beyond the inadequate quantitative data and examines also qualitative and local evidence. Information on housing and food, urban water quality and waste disposal, and life styles is examined along with representative family budgets and two sets of real wage estimates. The evidence, taken together with life expectancy estimates, suggests that the standard of living in mid-nineteenth-century Japan was not only higher than in the 1700s, but relatively high in comparison to most of the industrializing West.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanley, Susan B., 1983. "A High Standard of Living in Nineteenth-Century Japan: Fact or Fantasy?," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(1), pages 183-192, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:43:y:1983:i:01:p:183-192_02
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    Cited by:

    1. Okazaki, Tetsuji, 2005. "The role of the merchant coalition in pre-modern Japanese economic development: an historical institutional analysis," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 184-201, April.
    2. Broadberry, Stephen, 2021. "Accounting for the Great Divergence: Recent Findings from Historical National Accounting," CEPR Discussion Papers 15936, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Bassino, Jean-Pascal, 2006. "The Growth of Agricultural Output and Food Supply in Meiji Japan: Economic Miracle or Statistical Artifact?," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(2), pages 503-520, January.
    4. Bassino, Jean-Pascal & Broadberry, Stephen & Fukao, Kyoji & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Takashima, Masanori, 2019. "Japan and the great divergence, 730–1874," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-22.
    5. Hess, Siegfried, 1984. "Decay of bcc-structure and of bond-orientational order in a fluid," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 127(3), pages 509-528.
    6. Gail Honda, 1997. "Differential Structure, Differential Health: Industrialization in Japan, 1868-1940," NBER Chapters, in: Health and Welfare during Industrialization, pages 251-284, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Broadberry, Stephen, 2013. "Accounting for the great divergence," Economic History Working Papers 54573, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    8. van Zanden, Jan Luiten, 2003. "Rich and poor before the Industrial Revolution: a comparison between Java and the Netherlands at the beginning of the 19th century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 1-23, January.
    9. Broadberry, Stephen & Bassino, Jean-Pascal & Gupta, Bishnupriya & Takashima, Masanori & Fukao, Kyoji, 2015. "Japan And The Great Divergence, 725-1874," CEPR Discussion Papers 10569, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Baomin Dong & Jiong Gong & Kaixiang Peng & Zhongxiu Zhao, 2015. "Little Divergence: Evidence from Cotton Textiles in Japan and China 1868–1930," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 776-796, November.
    11. Rohlfs, Chris & Reed, Alexander & Yamada, Hiroyuki, 2010. "Causal effects of sex preference on sex-blind and sex-selective child avoidance and substitution across birth years: Evidence from the Japanese year of the fire horse," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 82-95, May.
    12. De Long, J Bradford, 1988. "Productivity Growth, Convergence, and Welfare: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(5), pages 1138-1154, December.
    13. Weider, T. & Stottut, U. & Loose, W. & Hess, S., 1991. "Order in fluids: Shear-induced anisotropy in dense fluids of spherical particles and in gases of rotating molecules," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 174(1), pages 1-14.
    14. Castillo, R. & Orozco, J.V., 1990. "The thermal conductivity of dense fluids and their mixtures using the effective diameter revised enskog theory," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 166(3), pages 505-516.

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