Introduction

Industrialisation is the process whereby the capacity to produce much more than basic food and subsistence goods, and to overcome the limitations of natural resource endowments, has been dramatically increased through investment in capital goods and the accompanying technological and organisational changes. The dominant approach to Japan's industrialisation over the years following the Second World War here labelled the 'Japanese model of development' was naturally premised on the prevailing understanding of the industrial revolution and of the stages of economic development that surrounded it. The emergence of the Great Divergence debate has encouraged the construction of theoretical frameworks and the compilation of empirical data on which global comparisons of historical patterns of economic growth and industrialisation can be based. Quantitative work has also focused on the implications of growth for living standards and welfare, in the attempt to assess the preconditions for and progress of industrialisation.