Asian Institute of Technology
Bangkok, Thailand
November 4, 2008
--- Lecture Abstract: What was behind Japans modern economic development ?
Japan was the first non-Western country that succeeded in modernization and industrialization. Japans economic development after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 was phenomenal. One reason was that already in the Edo Period that preceded the Meiji Restoration, Japan enjoyed a high level of education and of pre-industrial technology. Japan was prepared for modernization. However, a main motivating factor was a strong sense of national crisis that the Japanese had in the 19th century. It was an era of imperialism and Western powers were competing in having access to natural resources and markets and in the process colonized countries all over the world. In Asia, although China was nominally an independent nation, it was virtually a colony of Western powers including UK, France and Russia. Japan had closed its doors to the outside world at the beginning of the 17th century but in the 19th century, Western merchant and military ships began to appear near Japan and Japan was finally forced to open its door. When Japanese leaders learned that China was a prey to Western imperialism, they considered Western incursion into Japan as a national existential threat. The first reaction was to try to expel the barbarians (called Jooi). However, Japanese soon learned that the military strength of Western powers was overwhelming. People gradually realized that in order for Japan to escape from the destiny of China, Japan had to learn from the West, and to become militarily strong. In order to be militarily strong, one had to develop a strong economy. Thus a slogan of Fukoku Kyohei or to enrich the country, strengthen the military. This slogan became a slogan of the Meiji Government. Thus we can say that a strong sense of national crisis caused by external threat was a strong driving force to bring about modernization and a phenomenal economic development in Japan in the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century.
--- On Ambassador Hiroshi Ota:
Mr. Ota graduated in 1959 from Tokyo University, Faculty of Liberal Arts, majoring in American area studies. He received a masters degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA, in 1962. Mr. Ota spent most of his career in the Japanese Foreign Service. He served in such posts as director of the Policy Planning Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), deputy chief of mission of the Japanese Embassy in the Republic of Korea, director-general for Scientific and Technological Affairs of MOFA, and Japanese ambassador to Saudi Arabia. He was also seconded to the Japan Foundation as its Senior Vice President. He served as Japanese Ambassador to Thailand between September 1996 and December 1999, during which time he was a member of the Board of AIT. Between the years 2000 and 2002, he was a visiting lecturer at Thammasart University. He taught Japanese diplomacy at an MA course in English. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of AIT. He wrote such books as Waning of Technological Superpower: Self-Portrait of the US, and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Diary of a Japanese Ambassador and a number of papers on international politics (all in Japanese). Mr. Ota is currently advisor to The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, vice president of the Okazaki Institute, Tokyo, and director of the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies, Tokyo.
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7:4815 Minutes to Study: Second Edition: Japanby WeStudy1,467 views
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