Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan

Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan PDF Author: David G. Wittner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134080468
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
In this book David Wittner situates Japan’s Meiji Era experience of technology transfer and industrial modernization within the realm of culture, politics, and symbolism, examining how nineteenth century beliefs in civilization and enlightenment influenced the process of technological choice. Through case studies of the iron and silk industries, Wittner argues that the Meiji government’s guiding principle was not simply economic development or providing a technical model for private industry as is commonly claimed. Choice of technique was based on the ability of a technological artifact to import Western "civilization" to Japan: Meiji officials’ technological choices were firmly situated within perceptions of authority, modernity, and their varying political agendas. Technological artifacts could also be used as instruments of political legitimization. By late the Meiji Era, the former icons of Western civilization had been transformed into the symbols of Japanese industrial and military might. A fresh and engaging re-examination of Japanese industrialization within the larger framework of the Meiji Era, this book will appeal to scholars and students of science, technology, and society as well as Japanese history and culture.

Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan

Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan PDF Author: David G. Wittner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134080468
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book

Book Description
In this book David Wittner situates Japan’s Meiji Era experience of technology transfer and industrial modernization within the realm of culture, politics, and symbolism, examining how nineteenth century beliefs in civilization and enlightenment influenced the process of technological choice. Through case studies of the iron and silk industries, Wittner argues that the Meiji government’s guiding principle was not simply economic development or providing a technical model for private industry as is commonly claimed. Choice of technique was based on the ability of a technological artifact to import Western "civilization" to Japan: Meiji officials’ technological choices were firmly situated within perceptions of authority, modernity, and their varying political agendas. Technological artifacts could also be used as instruments of political legitimization. By late the Meiji Era, the former icons of Western civilization had been transformed into the symbols of Japanese industrial and military might. A fresh and engaging re-examination of Japanese industrialization within the larger framework of the Meiji Era, this book will appeal to scholars and students of science, technology, and society as well as Japanese history and culture.

Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan

Technology and the Culture of Progress in Meiji Japan PDF Author: David G. Wittner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134080476
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
In this book David Wittner situates Japan’s Meiji Era experience of technology transfer and industrial modernization within the realm of culture, politics, and symbolism, examining how nineteenth century beliefs in civilization and enlightenment influenced the process of technological choice. Through case studies of the iron and silk industries, Wittner argues that the Meiji government’s guiding principle was not simply economic development or providing a technical model for private industry as is commonly claimed. Choice of technique was based on the ability of a technological artifact to import Western "civilization" to Japan: Meiji officials’ technological choices were firmly situated within perceptions of authority, modernity, and their varying political agendas. Technological artifacts could also be used as instruments of political legitimization. By late the Meiji Era, the former icons of Western civilization had been transformed into the symbols of Japanese industrial and military might. A fresh and engaging re-examination of Japanese industrialization within the larger framework of the Meiji Era, this book will appeal to scholars and students of science, technology, and society as well as Japanese history and culture.

The Technological Transformation of Japan

The Technological Transformation of Japan PDF Author: Tessa Morris-Suzuki
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521424929
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This landmark book is the first general English-language history of technology in modern Japan.

Building a Modern Japan

Building a Modern Japan PDF Author: M. Low
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1403981116
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
In the late Nineteenth-century, the Japanese embarked on a program of westernization in the hope of building a strong and modern nation. Science, technology and medicine played an important part, showing European nations that Japan was a world power worthy of respect. It has been acknowledged that state policy was important in the development of industries but how well-organized was the state and how close were government-business relations? The book seeks to answer these questions and others. The first part deals with the role of science and medicine in creating a healthy nation. The second part of the book is devoted to examining the role of technology, and business-state relations in building a modern nation.

Culture and Technology in Modern Japan

Culture and Technology in Modern Japan PDF Author: Ian Inkster
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780755619795
Category : Technological innovations
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
"The rise of Japan as an economic superpower is a remarkable episode in the history of the modern world. This book seeks to explain this phenomenal success by looking at the issues of culture and technology, and making comparison with the experience of the USA, the UK, and Europe as a whole. The relationship between culture and technology lies at the heart of the undoubted market success of Japan, and the development of high technology and the much-lauded "cultural" attributes of Japan have contributed powerfully to national success. These vital issues are examined in detail and include, for example, the relationship between company "culture" and "structure", and the overriding impact of Japanese "national" culture. National cultures in Japan and the West are compared with the consequent effect on entrepreneurial and technological progress."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

French Policy Towards the Bakufu and Meiji Japan 1854-95

French Policy Towards the Bakufu and Meiji Japan 1854-95 PDF Author: Richard Sims
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9781873410615
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
Little serious work has been done on the policies towards Japan of countries other than the US or Britain in the seminal Meiji period. This study looks to fill this gap by investigating French policy from the opening of Japan to the Japanese triumph in the Sino-Japanese war.

Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture

Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture PDF Author: Donald H. Shively
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400869013
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 711

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Book Description
Essays on the Iwakura Embassy, the realistic painter Takahashi Yuichi, the educational system, and music, show how the Japanese went about borrowing from the West in the first decades after the Restoration: the formulation of strategies for modernizing and the adaptation of Western models to Meiji culture. In the second half of the volume, the darker side, the pathology of modernization, is seen. The adjustment of the individual and the effects of progressive modernization on culture in an increasingly complex, twentieth-century society are recurring themes. They are illustrated with particular intensity in the experience of such writers as Natsume Soseki and Kobayashi Hideo, in the thought of Nishida Kitaro, and in the millenarian aspects of the new religions. Originally published in 1971. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Technology Gatekeepers for War and Peace

Technology Gatekeepers for War and Peace PDF Author: M. Matsumoto
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230504175
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The technological revolution in shipbuilding in the early twentieth century had a great impact on the military, industrial, commercial worlds. Matsumoto focuses on the relationship between this revolution and the structure and function of 'technology gatekeepers' during the transfer of marine science and technology from Britain to Japan.

Revisiting Japan’s Restoration

Revisiting Japan’s Restoration PDF Author: Timothy Amos
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000508188
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
This volume presents the reader with thirty-one short chapters that capture an exciting new moment in the study of the Meiji Restoration. The chapters offer a kaleidoscope of approaches and interpretations of the Restoration that showcase the strengths of the most recent interpretative trends in history writing on Japan while simultaneously offering new research pathways. On a scale probably never before seen in the study of the Restoration outside Japan, the short chapters in this volume reveal unique aspects of the transformative event and process not previously explored in previous research. They do this in three core ways: through selecting and deploying different time frames in their historical analysis; by creative experimentation with different spatial units through which to ascertain historical experience; and by innovative selection of unique and highly original topics for analysis. The volume offers students and teachers of Japanese history, modern history, and East Asian studies an important resource for coming to grips with the multifaceted nature of Japan’s nineteenth-century transformation. The volume will also have broader appeal to scholars working in fields such as early modern/modern world history, global history, Asian modernities, gender studies, economic history, and postcolonial studies.

Science, Technology, and Medicine in the Modern Japanese Empire

Science, Technology, and Medicine in the Modern Japanese Empire PDF Author: David G. Wittner
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317444361
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Science, technology, and medicine all contributed to the emerging modern Japanese empire and conditioned key elements of post-war development. As the only emerging non-Western country that was a colonial power in its own right, Japan utilized these fields not only to define itself as racially different from other Asian countries and thus justify its imperialist activities, but also to position itself within the civilized and enlightened world with the advantages of modern science, technologies, and medicine. This book explores the ways in which scientists, engineers and physicians worked directly and indirectly to support the creation of a new Japanese empire, focussing on the eve of World War I and linking their efforts to later post-war developments. By claiming status as a modern, internationally-engaged country, the Japanese government was faced with having to control pathogens that might otherwise not have threatened the nation. Through the use of traditional and innovative techniques, this volume shows how the government was able to fulfil the state’s responsibility to protect society to varying degrees. Chapter 14 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.