ABSTRACT
FROM the account given in the preceding chapter of the rise of Japanese industry, it might appear that the economic structure of the country had already assumed a form identical with that of the West. An historical account is bound to give this impression, because it inevitably places emphasis on the appearance of new tendencies and on innovations of all kinds, rather than on the survivals of older forms. It is necessary, therefore, to do something to correct misapprehensions of this kind, and, by taking a cross-section of the present economic organization, to examine its main characteristics and to emphasize the peculiarities which distinguish it from that of Western countries.
