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Rural Society and Agricultural Development in Japan, 1870–1920: An Overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

B. R. Tomlinson
B. R. Tomlinson
Affiliation:
Department of History, The University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
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Extract

In 1868, when the Meiji emperor had his powers ‘restored’ by the political revolution that destroyed the old feudal system of the Tokugawa shoguns, Japan was a predominantly agricultural economy. By the time of the emperor's death in 1912 Japan had achieved significant industrialisation and in 1920, after a further boom during the First World War, she was well advanced along the road to a distinctive type of industrial development based on textile goods for export, heavy industry for domestic civilian and military capital investment, and considerable state intervention in economic and social organisation. In the mid 1880s, about 70% of the gainfully-employed population were engaged in agriculture, producing well over 40% of the gross national product. Farmers derived about three-quarters of their total income from agricultural activities, although agriculture probably absorbed only about 60% of total work hours for the labour force as a whole, with another 2% each for fishing and construction, and a further 16% or so for traditional mining and manufacturing. By 1920, the GDP of the Japanese economy had grown almost three-fold, but the share supplied by agriculture was under 30%, while just over 50% of workers were employed there.1.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , April 1995 , pp. 47 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

Notes

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53. Minami's argument, based on the construction of a production function for agriculture, that the ‘turning point’ at which surplus rural labour was absorbed was around 1960 has not won general acceptance. See Minami, Economic Development, chapter 9 and Taira, K., ‘Review Article: Development, Growth, and the Long Run’, Economic Development, and Cultural Change, 37 (1989), 430–1.Google Scholar

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56. Quoted in Dore, , Land Reform, p. 62Google Scholar Contrast this with the famous encapsulation of the feudal view of rural society – peasants should not be allowed to die, nor yet to live’.

57. Waswo, , ‘Transformation’, pp. 548–9Google Scholar; Francks, , Technology, p. 87Google Scholar; Sumiya, and Taira, , Japanese Economic History, p. 292.Google Scholar