OSAKA UNIVERSITY SHORT-TERM STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM _

Objective
This course is concerned with the economic development of Japan, from c.1600 to the present, and its cultural, social and intellectual background. Particular attention will be paid to the nature of Japan's contribution to the growth of the Asian international economy and, more recently, to that of the world economy.
No knowledge of economics is assumed.

Background Reading

• 1. Nakane Chie & Shinzaburo Oishi eds, Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan, University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo, 1990.
• 2. Smith, T.C., Native Sources of Japanese Industrialization, 1750-1920, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1988.
• 3. Yamamura Kozo ed., The Economic Emergence of Modern Japan, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997.
• 4. Nakamura Takafusa, The Postwar Japanese Economy: Its Development and Structure 1937-1994, Second Edition, University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo, 1995.

Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. The emergence of the Tokugawa regime
• 3. The peasant family economy and social institutions
• 4. The opening of Japanese ports to foreign trade
• 5. The economic significance of the Meiji Ishin
• 6. The labour-intensive industrialisation
• 7. Zaibatsu and other business groups
• 8. Japanese imperialism and intra-Asian trade
• 9. Postwar reforms and economic nationalism
• 10. The "Miracle"
• 11. The Japanese business system
• 12. Japan in the growth of the Asia-Pacific economy

Grading
Assessment will be based on:

Class participation (including short tests)	40%
Essays	60%