Sign up to access the complete lesson and track your progress!
Unlock This CourseIn 1853 Japan had almost no modern industry. Its leaders knew that Western countries were rich and strong because of their factories, railways and steamships, and they wanted Japan to catch up. Private businessmen had little money and no experience of machines, so the government went first. In 1870 it set up a Ministry of Industry to run the effort.
Key terms:
The government built factories, shipyards and mines and hired foreign experts to run them. One famous example was the Tomioka silk mill, opened in 1872 with French machines and French engineers. Japanese workers learned the skills there and then took them home.
Running factories cost the government a great deal. From the 1880s it sold many of them, often cheaply, to private businessmen. Those with good links to the government were the biggest winners.
The government also gave subsidies to key businesses, such as shipping lines, and trained engineers at new technical schools. This was industrialisation led from above: the state chose the industries, paid for the start-up and then handed over to business.
The businessmen who got the factories, mines and shipyards grew into the zaibatsu. The two most famous were Mitsui and Mitsubishi.
A zaibatsu could move money between its own banks, trading firms and factories, so it was hard for a smaller firm to compete. The zaibatsu helped Japan to industrialise fast, but they also held a great deal of wealth and political influence in the hands of a few families.
Silk was Japan's most important export through the Meiji period. Selling it abroad earned the money to buy machines and raw materials. Cotton spinning grew too: the Osaka Spinning Company opened in 1883 with British machinery, and by the late 1890s Japan was exporting more cotton yarn than it imported.
Most of the workers in these mills were young women, many of them teenage daughters of poor farming families. Their families needed the money. They often lived in company dormitories and worked shifts of 12 hours or more, and in cotton mills some worked at night. They were paid much less than men. Conditions could be hard, with long hours, little rest and the risk of illness. A first Factory Law in 1911 set some limits on hours for women and children, but it was weak and came late.
Cheap labour kept the price of Japanese cloth low. That is one reason Japanese silk and cotton sold so well abroad.
After the first short line of 1872, the government finished the Tokaido line linking Tokyo and Kobe in 1889, and private companies built many other lines. In 1906-07 the government bought up the main private lines. Railways carried coal, silk, rice and workers cheaply and joined the country into one market.
In 1885 Mitsubishi's shipping company joined a rival to form Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), which received government help. By the 1890s its steamers sailed to India and Europe. Japan could now carry its own goods.
Modern industry and warships need steel. The state-owned Yawata Steel Works in Kyushu opened in 1901, near the coalfields. The war with China (see the lesson The Sino-Japanese War and the Boxer Rebellion) gave Japan money to help pay for it.
People moved from the villages to find work. Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Kobe grew into big industrial and port cities. They also grew crowded, with poor housing and smoky air.
Industrial growth was uneven. Alongside the giant zaibatsu firms there were thousands of small workshops with low pay and poor conditions. Pollution also became a problem. In the 1890s waste from the Ashio copper mine poisoned a river and farmland, and local people protested. Most Japanese were still farmers, and many farming families depended on the wages their daughters sent home.
Japan went from almost no modern industry to steel, railways, steamships and large mills. Cities grew, and young women went out to work in factories.
Most people still lived in the countryside and farmed. Wealth and power stayed in the hands of a few families and a small elite, now in business as well as in government.
Explain TWO causes of the rapid growth of industry in Japan in the years 1872-1914. [8 marks]
Remember: for each cause, give precise facts and show how it led to industrial growth. One cause alone scores no more than 4.
One cause was support from the government. In 1870 it set up a Ministry of Industry and in 1872 it opened the Tomioka silk mill, using French machines and engineers. Workers learned modern skills there and took them to other mills. From the 1880s the government sold many state factories to private businessmen, and in 1901 it opened the Yawata Steel Works. This gave Japan machines, skills and heavy industry that private businessmen could not have afforded alone, so industry grew faster.
A second cause was cheap labour, especially young women in the silk and cotton mills. Many were teenage daughters of poor farming families who worked shifts of 12 hours or more for low wages. Because wages were low, Japanese silk and cotton cloth was cheap and sold well abroad. The money from exports paid for machines and raw materials, which helped industry to keep growing.
What lifts this to the top level: each cause has precise facts and a clear explanation of how it led to industrial growth.
Name the cause, add a date, a place or a name, then finish with "This led to growth because...". The zaibatsu would make a good alternative second cause.