ABSTRACT
Japan was the first of the Asian nations to industrialize—in the 1960s—followed by Korea a decade later. In the 1980s China and then India began to open up to international capitalism, and economic liberalization was gradually introduced into societies that still remain relatively regulated and closed. Some feudal features persist in all of the JKCI countries (Japan, South Korea—“Korea,” China, and India), along with cultural values that include a high value placed on education, frugality and saving, and honoring traditions that have been in place for millennia. They also have strong and distinctive perceptions of national identity (Kim 2011). The economic systems in these countries cover a range of approaches to capitalism as well as sharing more similarities than they do with western capitalist economies. Attitudes to modernization and development vary between these countries. The Koreans strove to maintain rapid economic development toward seonjinguk (advanced country) and enthusiastically embraced the western neo-liberal model, while the Japanese had a stronger sense of their own “uniqueness” (nihonjinron) and saw their own rapid economic development and high standards of living as a reflection of that uniqueness (Kim 2011). The colonial and neo-colonial experiences of these nations also differ. Both Japan and Korea have had close contact with the Americans. India shrugged off centuries of British colonialism in 1947 but retains many institutional legacies of the British, including the judicial system and parliamentary democracy. Having experienced colonial aggressions from the European powers and the Japanese, China followed a rigorous path of isolationist socialism from 1950 until the 1980s, aiming for “revolutionary modernity” combining nationalism, socialism, and developmental ism (ibid.).
