IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/bushst/v55y2013i3p498-523.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The ‘miracle’ of car ownership in Japan's ‘Era of High Growth’, 1955--73

Author

Listed:
  • Susan C. Townsend

Abstract

The ‘Era of High Growth’ in Japan is well known for its ‘miracle’ economy, although the reasons why car ownership increased during this period have been largely ignored. Both the ‘miracle’ and the process of motor manufacturing have been viewed from the perspective of supply rather than demand. This article examines the ways in which the formidable barriers to mass car ownership were removed during this period by analysing quantitative data and also reconsidering narratives of Japanese manufacturing predicated on Japanese cultural uniqueness ( nihonjinron ). It considers the Japanese as consumers as well as workers, and concludes that car ownership is less a ‘miracle’ than a manifestation of Japan's process of modernisation during the twentieth century.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan C. Townsend, 2013. "The ‘miracle’ of car ownership in Japan's ‘Era of High Growth’, 1955--73," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(3), pages 498-523, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:55:y:2013:i:3:p:498-523
    DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2013.771336
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00076791.2013.771336
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00076791.2013.771336?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francks,Penelope, 2009. "The Japanese Consumer," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521875967.
    2. Francks,Penelope, 2009. "The Japanese Consumer," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521699327.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dominic Kelly, 2014. "US Hegemony and the Origins of Japanese Nuclear Power: The Politics of Consent," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(6), pages 819-846, December.
    2. Nidhi Maini, 2020. "Dressed Up and On the Go: Women Cyclists in Modern Japan," China Report, , vol. 56(2), pages 259-281, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:55:y:2013:i:3:p:498-523. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FBSH20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.