Japan as the Far West

Considering that it is the world’s third-largest economy—with a long and rich history and a sophisticated culture—Japan is surprisingly little-known outside its borders. This book presents a detailed overview of key aspects of Japanese society and culture. Since the Meiji Period (1868-1912), when a famous slogan was “Rich Country, Strong Military”, Japan was rapidly able to build an empire in East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific. With the mid-19th century push to adopt European and American technology and culture, the seeds of the modern nation were sown early and thoroughly. As the book points out, another important Meiji-Era slogan was, literally, “Leave Asia/Enter Europe!” Tokyo and Yokohama were already linked by rail in 1872. In the same year, the Ministry of Education adopted the European three-tier elementary, secondary, and university system. With a century of cultural and technological advancement already behind it by the end of WW II, Japan then achieved its postwar “economic miracle”, lifting itself from defeat and penury to a point where its property market was worth four times the value of US property. We hear much about the “lost decade” of the Japanese economy after the bursting of the 1991 stock-market bubble. However, as shown here, GDP growth per worker from 2001 to 2010 still managed to outpace Europe and the United States.