The Russian Far East: The Role of Japan

Terutomo Ozawa

Chapter 6 in Foreign Investment in Russia and Other Soviet Successor States, 1996, pp 157-176 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Japan had been under self-imposed seclusion for over two hundred years until 1854 when Commodore Perry’s squadron (‘black ships’ as they were called by the Japanese) forced Japan to open its doors for trade with the West. The purpose of seclusion was to ward off any Christian proselytisation. During two centuries of practical isolation, only Dutch and Chinese merchants were allowed to trade with Japan, but even such limited commercial exchanges were permitted to take place solely at Dejima (which literally means ‘a jetted islet’), a small port enclave created for that specific purpose in Nagasaki on Kyushu, the southern major island of Japan. The volume of trade was minimal, and Japan was practically an autarkic economy. As might well have been expected, the Japanese standard of living then remained low and backward, compared with that in the Western world, which actively exploited and gained from trade, although local crafts including porcelain, lacquerware, and sword-making metallurgy flourished in Japan.

Keywords: Wall Street Journal; Japanese Government; Capitalist Production; Consumer Durable; Territorial Dispute (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-24892-6_6

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-24892-6_6

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