ABSTRACT
Fukuzawa Yukichi was an economist and educator who played a central role in the modernisation of Japan following the Meiji Restoration of 1868. He founded Keio University and published a number of very popular books and journal articles, using both channels to introduce Western ideas into Japan. He believed that adopting such ideas was crucial if Japan was to survive as a strong independent state, but at the same time he argued that the Japanese needed to preserve the essentials of their own proud and ancient culture. Much of his work was aimed at business and industrial leaders, and it was from the foundations laid down by Fukuzawa and others like him that Japan rose to become one of the economic leaders of the world.
