How have the Japanese become one of the most important industrial countries?

Answer 1

This could take a long time to answer fully. Here's a really bare outline:

Japan was pretty isolated before the 1600s, and admired only Chinese culture, so the westerners were marginalized there.

In the mid-1800s, the Japanese system was collapsing upon itself, and the western nations were trying to engage China and Japan in trade, at the minimum.

Certain Japanese lords (esp. in the fiefdoms of Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa and Hizen) were aware of the military threat and technological superiority of the western naval powers, especially the US and Great Britain, and adopted tactics and technologies from them. They also began to conspire against the central regime, the Tokugawa bakufu.

In 1868, the Tokugawa government fell, and lord like those from the four rebellious fiefdoms formed a new one, called Meiji. They quickly (1873-74) sent a mission to the US and Europe to study - called the Iwakura Mission - which returned with a plan to remake Japan.

Between 1880 and 1910, Japan reinvented itself. It accomplished in 30 years what Great Britain took almost 200 to accomplish - an industrial revolution.

By World War I, Japan was able to become a power equal to the United States and Great Britain in terms of naval power in the pacific. The evidence for this is the Treaty of Portsmouth, which limited Japan to an inferior number of large naval vessels, so that America and Britain could dominate the region.

Japan's industrialization paralleled the more advanced western powers in the 1920s and 30s, as Japan slipped into totalitarianism and nationalism. Japan invaded China in 1931 in part to get raw materials to feed its growing population and industry. Compare this to United Fruit Co. for the United States and British colonies in Africa.

During World War II, the US destroyed most of Japan's industrial infrastructure. Then, the enlightened US postwar occupation rebuilt it all, and helped Japan develop a democratic government with a vibrant, industrial economy.

For decades, Japan produced cheaper knockoffs of stuff America made better. As Japan's industrialists gained experience and the people raised their expectations for a good life (the turning point is generally recognized to be the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the start of the "post-postwar" era in Japan), Japanese products began to earn respect, and higher prices.

In 1994, the Kobe Quake set back laptop manufacturers around the world because Kobe-based Sharp made the best flat screens in the world, and the port was down for six months.

In 2007, Toyota passed General Motors as the world's largest auto manufacturer.

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Answer 2

For two reasons. First, after WW2, the United States helped rebuild the nation that so viciously attacked it at Pearl Harbor and then was responsible for thousands of military deaths. Probably we are the ONLY nation to help rebuild a nation that was our enemy and whom we defeated in war. Second, Japan was land starved, and in order to survive, a turn to an industrial from an agrarian economy was a must.

Chow!!

Answer 3

They ship all of the raw materials in (coal, iron, etc.) and then prosses it into steel. After that, they can make it into goods, ecspecially technology, and sell it for a big profit. This works well becuase the countries with the mines, but not the machinery, can sell Japan the raw ores, then Japan processes it and sells the goods, and sells the goods to rich countries.

Answer 4

Through the efforts of general Mcarthur

Answer 5

Realizing the importance of education (and the value of not having to pay for your national defense)

Answer 6

Hondas.

Answer 7

cheap labor.