Economist.com, 25 Mar 2009
JAPAN developed rapidly after American gunboats opened it to trade in the late 19th century. Within 40 years, Emperor Meiji led his once-feudal country into the modern world economically (and, alas, militarily). To do so, the state bought Western technology such as factory machines, railroads and telegraph lines. But until the turn of the 20th century it did so by eschewing foreign loans, which were equated with a loss of sovereignty.
How did a poor country like Japan obtain the foreign currency to pay for such products? The answer was exports: first, of light industrial goods such as raw silk and pottery; later, of heavier materials, including steel and chemicals. It was a huge success. In the 1860s Japan’s small-scale cotton-textile industry was nearly decimated by European imports. By 1914, however, after buying automated cotton spinners, the country sold half of its yarn production abroad, which accounted for one-quarter of the world’s cotton yarn exports.
Thus the “Asian model” of export-led growth was born.
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