Kawakatsu has presented a new view of the process of Japanese industrialization, seeing it not as a copy of European industrialization, but a product of the dynamic forces of Asian economic history. These forces also account for the recent development of Newly Industrialized Economies (NIEs) and ASEAN which have quickly followed the success of Japan's industrialization. His idea is related to the work of Sugihara, who has argued that Japan's industrialization resulted from intra-Asian trade in the late nineteenth century. 1

Kawakatsu emphasizes the importance of intra-Asian trade as a stimulus to Japanese industrial development rather than Western influences. This is probably correct. But the history of intra-Asian trade since the fifteenth century has not been studied by economic historians. When it is researched, it may be possible to answer the question raised by Kawakatsu concerning the success of Japan as a competitor in intraAsian trade. This short paper contributes to this research; it shows the unique role of Japan's industries in intra-Asian trade by analysing SinoJapanese trade in the Tokugawa period and early Meiji era.