Publication: Trade in the shadow of power: Japanese industrial exports in the interwar years
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Identifiers
Publication date
2020-08-01
Defense date
Advisors
Tutors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wiley
Impact
Export
Abstract
During the interwar years, Japanese industrialization accelerated alongside the
expansion of industrial exports to regional markets. Trade blocs in the interwar
years were used as an instrument of imperial power to foster exports and as a
substitute for productivity to encourage industrial production. The historiography on
Japanese industrialization in the interwar years describes heavy industries’ interests in
obtaining access to wider markets to increase economies of scale and reduce unit costs.
However, this literature provides no quantitative evidence that proves the success of
those mechanisms in expanding exports. In this article we scrutinize how Japan—
a relatively poor country—used colonial as well as informal power interventions to
expand regional markets for its exports, especially for the most intensive human
capital sector of the industrializing economy. Our results show that Japanese exports
in 1938 would have been around one-third smaller had no empire ever existed, which
indicates an outstanding effect of empire in the international context.
Description
Keywords
Japanese industrialization, Interwar years, Japan, Japanese exports
Bibliographic citation
Ayuso‐Díaz, A., & Tena‐Junguito, A. (2020). Trade in the shadow of power: Japanese industrial exports in the interwar years. The Economic History Review, 73 (3), pp. 815-843.