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How did Japan catch-up with the West? Some implications of recent revisions to Japan’s historical growth record

Author

Listed:
  • Broadberry, Stephen

    (Nuffield College, Oxford)

  • Fukao, Kyoji

    (Hitotsubashi University)

  • Settsu, Tokihiko

    (Musashi University)

Abstract
This paper uses recently revised data on Japanese GDP to analyse the process by which Japan caught-up with the West. The new historical national accounts suggest that Japan was more than one-third richer in 1874 than suggested by Maddison, and that the Meiji period growth built on earlier development. We show that (1) despite trend GDP per capita growth during the Tokugawa shogunate, the catching-up process only started after 1890 with respect to Britain, and after World War 1 with respect to the United States and many European nations (2) although catching up was driven by the dynamic productivity performance of Japanese manufacturing, Japanese success in exporting manufactured goods was just as much driven by limiting the growth of real wages (3) despite claims that Japan was following a distinctive Asian path of labour-intensive industrialisation, capital played an important role in the catching-up process.

Suggested Citation

  • Broadberry, Stephen & Fukao, Kyoji & Settsu, Tokihiko, 2025. "How did Japan catch-up with the West? Some implications of recent revisions to Japan’s historical growth record," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 749, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    • Handle: RePEc:cge:wacage:749
    as

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    File URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/centres/cage/manage/publications/wp749.2025.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    2. de Vries, Jan, 1994. "The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious Revolution," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(2), pages 249-270, June.
    3. Broadberry, S N, 1994. "Technological Leadership and Productivity Leadership in Manufacturing since the Industrial Revolution: Implications for the Convergence Debate," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(423), pages 291-302, March.
    4. Mary O'Mahony & Marcel P. Timmer, 2009. "Output, Input and Productivity Measures at the Industry Level: The EU KLEMS Database," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(538), pages 374-403, June.
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    7. Broadberry, Stephen N., 1993. "Manufacturing and the Convergence Hypothesis: What the Long-Run Data Show," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(4), pages 772-795, December.
    8. Fremdling, Rainer & De Jong, Herman & Timmer, Marcel P., 2007. "British and German Manufacturing Productivity Compared: A New Benchmark for 1935/36 Based on Double Deflated Value Added," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 67(2), pages 350-378, June.
    9. Kaoru Sugihara, 2007. "The Second Noel Butlin Lecture: Labour‐Intensive Industrialisation In Global History," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 47(2), pages 121-154, July.
    10. Allen, Robert C., 2012. "Technology and the great divergence: Global economic development since 1820," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 1-16.
    11. Broadberry, S. N., 1997. "Anglo-German productivity differences 1870–1990: A sectoral analysis," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 247-267, August.
    12. Broadberry, Stephen N., 1998. "How Did the United States and Germany Overtake Britian? A Sectoral Analysis of Comparative Productivity Levels, 1870–1990," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 58(2), pages 375-407, June.
    13. Broadberry, Stephen & Burhop, Carsten, 2010. "Real Wages and Labor Productivity in Britain and Germany, 1871–1938: A Unified Approach to the International Comparison of Living Standards," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 70(2), pages 400-427, June.
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