Manufacturing raw materials in Meiji Japan: design bias of imported technology and local resource innovation

Résumé En

Japan has long been a favorite non-Western reference point in debates on industrialization. It was Asia’s first industrial power, and the documentary sources of its industrializing process are rich. Because it is so well known to the scholarly conversation, Japan may not seem like a novel point of entry for rewriting the histories of making in Asia. Yet, beneath the surface of familiarity there are many points worth reappraisal.In spite of Japan’s prominence in global economic history and debates on global capitalism, from the Great Divergence to Industrious Revolution to Great Acceleration, there is a dearth of historical research about manufacturing in Japan during the long nineteenth century.I would argue that the fact that Japan was of interest in global capitalism debates has actually made it harder to dig deeper into the structuring characteristics of manufacturing in Japan's long 19th century. In this presentation I address avenues of exploring what I call the unfinished business of understanding Japan's early industry.