In How Asia Works: Success and Failure In the World’s Most Dynamic Region, Joe Studwell explores what led countries such as Japan, South Korea, and China to economic prosperity while countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines failed to ascertain opulence. He describes this separation of success as on that creates two East Asias. He presents his arguments in a four-part narrative detailing the step-by-step process through which countries complete the ascension process. He supports his claims with a 67-page long list of references from the Meiji Restoration all the way up to present day (2014 being that the book was published then). This essay will analyze and critique one main component from each step of his three-step recipe for …show more content…
He explains that export discipline and import protectionism were the only ways for the developing countries to advance. He touches on the fact that there will be a loss to the average citizen in that they will be paying an “invisible tax” in order to help industrial advancement via industrial policy. This invisible tax is what led to a financial surplus that could be invested into industrial advancement via industrial policy making. My argument is that he is arguing for the unremitting transfer of capital from the common household to exporting corporations, or in layman’s terms, essentially asking for the poorer citizens to release more of the small amount of money they have to finance the industrial sector in promises for better growth tomorrow. Thus this increases the level of poverty in the country. His argument also indicates that in order for this industrial advancement, there has to be a sacrifice of domestic competition, which would be a very large factor in the worlds most dynamic region. This domestic competition is what provides profit for countries and thus providing money to the population. This protectionism and export-focused approach o politics doubly attacks the domestic market and almost ensure a detrimental loss for the common population. Studwell’s argument on the financial situation lacks to provide any attention to the relationship of the capital surplus to the already-wealthy elite. With the excess capital found from the “invisible taxation” can be traced to the pockets of those involved in big business. Being that more capital is brought to benefit the corporations who export product, this also provides a benefit to owners of corporations and for a close relationship between policy makers (and thus policy) and big business owners. The fact that policies benefit big business so well, it also causes the problem of killing small businesses, especially without the benefits of
Besides the experience of travel itself, identify one theme or pattern that seems to be repeated throughout the test. Examples (political\ systems, economic development, religion). What significance does this theme or pattern play in shaping the ancient world? Are there any chapters/people/events that contradict your pattern or theme?’
When Japan was at the turning point of its economy and in the process of forming a new government, Nakae Chomin wrote A Discourse by Three Drunkards on Government, a political theory book that primarily deals with question of Japan’s future with an interesting debate between Champion and the Gentleman. Character Champion thought that Japan should step out of their isolated island and become more forceful in its handling of foreign disputes. He believed that Japan will stay weak if Japan did not have the strength and forces to conquer other nations. The Western learning Gentleman on the other side is a proponent of the modern Western notion of liberty and equality. He criticized Western nations for maintaining large armies that drained their economy. He suggested that Japan should abandon all attempts to compete with the West militarily and commit itself fully to the values that the West did not have. Approximately sixty years has passed since then, and Champion, Gentleman, and Master Nankai have gathered around once again to discuss the postwar Japan, the rise of the militarism, imperialist aggression, and the subsequent adoption
There is an extensive history empirical power, repeatedly and successfully controlling another state or group of people in order to exploit it economically. In Southeast Asia there were 5 colonial powers; the United Kingdom, France, Dutch, America, and Japan, their primary motives for establishing colonies in the region was to get control of trade routes, to get access to the natural resources and raw materials, and the cheap labor, as well as to establish naval and military bases so that they could amass influence in the region. Prior to World War II, a third of the world 's area was colonized by European colonial powers between the 15th and 19th centuries, and another third of the world 's population were in colonies, dependencies, protectorates, or dominions. In this essay, I will focus on the British and French colonization in Southeast Asia. The British-controlled Burma, most of the Malayan peninsula, and Singapore, which was a strategic port and later became a naval base for the British. Meanwhile, the French controlled the adjoining countries of Vietnamese, Cambodia, and Laos, collectively known as French Indochina. This period of colonization in Southeast Asia brought many changes to the regions society, politics, and the economy. For instance, both colonial powers introduced political changes such as introducing a centralized form of government and changes to the justice systems in many of the colonized countries. There were also social impacts resulting from the
Two ships can arrive at the same destination; however that does not necessarily mean that they used the same route on their journey. Such is the same with the industrialization of Britain and Japan. Both rose to become the two great pioneers of the modern world; however the paths they took to success were different. This paper will compare Japan and Britain, exploring the causes of its industrialization, and how the countries drastically changed because of it. What sets Britain’s industrialization process apart from Japans is that it did not have a role model to base its development on; it was the first industrial nation. Therefore the cause of its industrialization must have much
Much like in Japan when Matthew Perry of the United States came in and insisted in having Japan open up its ports to diplomatic and commercial relations with the US, and since the shogun felt he had no other option, he complied with Perry’s order. As the westerners had their way with both east Asian nations, the threat of western industrialization became a reality, and due to the amount of hunger and economic depression in their societies, their people began to crave industrialization seeing the amount of success in the western societies that were industrialized. There began to be an increased amount of rebellion, and a fight for change in these two nations, but the results that came from these rebellions and the main argument for these rebellions differed.
1) Nationalism, socialism, and religion have all played a major role in anti-colonial struggles and post-colonial constructions in India and Southeast Asia. Which of these three ideologies do you think was most effective for colonized peoples and why?
Chapter 19 Study Guide, Internal Troubles, External Threats: China, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan, 1800-1914, Study Guide (Original: pp. 559-586; With Sources: pp. 877-903)
Japan and Great Britain are two geographically isolated countries that have risen to greatness despite many challenges. Both nations have overcome their relative seclusion and grasped power, despite consequences for neighboring areas. Though Japan and Britain have an abundance of similarities, differences abound as well. While Great Britain has used its location central to Europe to gain allies and form trade deals, Japan has been less than diplomatic in grasping its power from neighboring countries. Though Britain has been an example of progress and modernity for eons, Japan has pulled itself into modernity more recently.
In Peter Duus’ Japanese Discovery of America, the author shows the learning experience that Japan went through in order to become one of the strongest countries in the early 20th century. From 1797 when the first American ship arrived in Japan, to 1879 when President Grant visited the Meiji emperor, Japan, not one of the strongest countries economically and militarily at the time, had interactions with multiple countries that included Russia, England and Portugal. However, Japan’s Confucianism belief and the development of the Tokaido Road served as roots for their quick rise to modernization. Even though multiple countries were cooperating with Japan, the relations with the United States proved to be the most
Between the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Japan’s economy developed remarkably. China had also developed economically; however, not near as much as Japan. The Japanese government industrialized greatly and encouraged western influence, but the Chinese government did the opposite.
The nineteenth century was a turbulent time of western imperialism and a major Asian power shift. European powers and the United States had a destabilizing effect on the region and the choices Japan and China made in response their imposing expansion was a major contributor to the trajectory of their respective futures. Social factors, such as the differences in national and religious unity, also played a role in the how the two nations emerged from the Age of Imperialism.
Both Japan and China lie in the East of Asia. To a certain extent,Japan and China own similar culture background, in the Confucian Cultural Circle. But when we look back into the modern history development, Japan and China made quite different decisions when facing the western countries’ aggression. China suffered the invasion in 1840 after the first Sino-British War. Japan was in a similar situation in the black boat incident in 1853, the Opium War made the West began to pay attention to East Asia. From then on, Japan began to face the western culture. The reactions, as well as the result of Japan and China were quite disparate. This article wants to discuss what lead to the difference.
He states that Japan used market capitalism to pursue individual and corporate material wealth. However, China has been far more conservative approach having evolved from Mao Zedong’s planned socialism towards a “functional market socialism”. Further Japan appears to have adopted a far more western attitude more readily in comparison to China.
Firstly, the financial aid from the strong state is the main factor that arose the economic miracle in Japan. When the cold war began, the U.S. government feared that a bleak economic prospects and instability in Japan would encourage the expansion of Soviet influence in the Pacific, and with a triumph of communism in China’s civil war, the prospective of East Asia seemed to be at stake (Miyazaki 1967). As a consequence, the concern about the spread of communism, which aroused the American officials to stress the expansion of chances for
Beeson, M. (2009). Developmental states in East Asia: a comparison of the Japanese and Chinese experiences. Asian Perspective, 33(2), pp.5-39