East Asia and the Global Economy: Japan's Ascent, with Implications for China's Future

by Stephen G. Bunker, Paul S. Ciccantell

Overview

After World War II, Japan reinvented itself as a shipbuilding powerhouse and began its rapid ascent in the global economy. Its expansion strategy integrated raw material procurement, the redesign of global transportation infrastructure, and domestic industrialization. In this authoritative and engaging study, Stephen G. Bunker and Paul S. Ciccantell identify the key factors in Japan’s economic growth and the effects this growth had on the reorganization of significant sectors of the global economy.

Bunker and Ciccantell discuss what drove Japan’s economic expansion, how Japan globalized the work economy to support it, and why this spectacular growth came to a dramatic halt in the 1990s. Drawing on studies of ore mining, steel making, corporate sector reorganization, and port/rail development, they provide valuable insight into technical processes as well as specific patterns of corporate investment.

East Asia and the Global Economy introduces a theory of “new historical materialism” that explains the success of Japan and other world industrial powers. Here, the authors assert that the pattern of Japan’s ascent is essential for understanding China’s recent path of economic growth and dominance and anticipating what the future may hold.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801895883
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	07/16/2007
Series:	Johns Hopkins Studies in Globalization
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Stephen G. Bunker (1944–2005) was a professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Paul S. Ciccantell is an associate professor of sociology at Western Michigan University. They are coauthors of Globalization and the Race for Resources, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Stephen G. Bunker (1944–2005) was a professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Table of Contents

Preface, by Paul S. Ciccantell
1. Growth and Crisis in the Japanese Economy
2. Economic Ascent and Hegemony in the Capitalist World-Economy
3. The MIDAs-Steel-Ships Nexus
4. Creating Japan's Coal-Exporting Peripheries
5. Replicating Japan's New Model in Iron Ore
6. Transporting Coal and Iron Ore
7. The Restructuring of Global Markets and the Futureof the Capitalist World-Economy
References
Index

What People are Saying About This

David Smith

Bunker and Ciccantell offer a distinct and original explanation for Japanese growth based on how states, sectors, and firms collaborated to restructure raw material procurement and global transportation. An intellectual tour de force.

— David Smith, University of California at Irvine, author of Third World Cities in Global Perspective

From the Publisher

Bunker and Ciccantell offer a distinct and original explanation for Japanese growth based on how states, sectors, and firms collaborated to restructure raw material procurement and global transportation. An intellectual tour de force.
—David Smith, University of California at Irvine, author of Third World Cities in Global Perspective

Editorial Reviews

East Asia and the Global Economy . . . is an interesting book and would be useful in both advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses focused on economic development in general or on the East Asian region, in particular.
—Nicholas Thomas, East Asia: An International Quarterly

On the whole, this book offers an interesting discussion of an important aspect of Japan's economic success in the postwar years and helps increase our understanding of Japan's economic ascent in the postwar years.
—Kevin G. Cai, Pacific Affairs

From the Publisher

On the whole, this book offers an interesting discussion of an important aspect of Japan's economic success in the postwar years and helps increase our understanding of Japan's economic ascent in the postwar years.

Pacific Affairs - Kevin G. Cai

East Asia and the Global Economy . . . is an interesting book and would be useful in both advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses focused on economic development in general or on the East Asian region, in particular.

East Asia: An International Quarterly - Nicholas Thomas

East Asia and the Global Economy... is an interesting book and would be useful in both advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses focused on economic development in general or on the East Asian region, in particular.

— Nicholas Thomas

East Asia: An International Quarterly