Japanese Economic Development: Markets, Norms, Structures

Japanese Economic Development presents three distinct approaches to understanding how and why Japan made the transition from a relatively low-income country mainly focused on agriculture to a high-income nation centered on manufacturing and services.

In offering an eclectic account of Japan’s economic development, this book appeals to students in a broad group of disciplines including economics, political science, sociology, geography and history.

The book makes a case for 'over determination' in economic behavior. Because individual, firm level, and governmental behavior is simultaneously determined by the interaction of markets, norms, and structures, change over time is rarely if ever limited to the economy operating in isolation from social norms and structures.

Carl Mosk is Professor of Economics at the University of Victoria in Canada. He specializes in economic history, population economics and Asian economies, especially the Japanese economy. He is the author of a number of books on the demographic and economic history of Japan and is author of the Routledge book, Trade and Migration in the Modern World (2005).