ABSTRACT
Japan's use of foreign employees to accelerate many lines of innovation and progress during the Meiji period (1868-1912) is a remarkable early instance of what would now be called the development process. Many aspects of the Japanese experience anticipate what is now underway in the so-called late-developing countries. In an earlier age when there were no foreign-aid programs, the Japanese government had to make its own decisions and to pay the costs out of its own limited resources. Furthermore, the Japanese deliberately carried out a program of training what now are called "counterparts" and then phased out the foreign experts. Although this particular terminology was not used at the time, the pattern now seems familiar.
