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Selective Technology Choice, Adaptations, and Industrial Development: Lessons from Japanese Historical Experience

Author

Listed:
  • Tomoko HASHINO

    (Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University)

  • Keijiro Otsuka

    (The Center for Social Systems Innovation and Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University)

Abstract

It is well-known that Japan successfully imported advanced technology from Europe during the Meiji era (1868-1912), notably in the modern cotton spinning industry which used imported British ring machines and Indian cotton and outcompeted India in Asian cotton yarn market. It is also true that traditional industries, especially the sedentary silk reeling and the cotton and silk weaving districts located in various parts of the country, successfully developed while using imported technologies. This study attempts to explore key factors contributing to the successful industrial development in prewar Japan based on the review of the development of the modern cotton textile and silk reeling industries, and the traditional cotton and silk weaving and sedentary silk reeling industries. We found that these industries commonly selected appropriate technologies and adapted them to the initially abundant endowment of labor followed by its growing scarcity.

Suggested Citation

  • Tomoko HASHINO & Keijiro Otsuka, 2021. "Selective Technology Choice, Adaptations, and Industrial Development: Lessons from Japanese Historical Experience," Discussion Papers 2124, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    • Handle: RePEc:koe:wpaper:2124
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Saxonhouse, Gary R. & Wright, Gavin, 2010. "National Leadership and Competing Technological Paradigms: The Globalization of Cotton Spinning, 1878–1933," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 70(3), pages 535-566, September.
    2. Tomoko Hashino & Keijiro Otsuka (ed.), 2016. "Industrial Districts in History and the Developing World," Studies in Economic History, Springer, number 978-981-10-0182-6, September.
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