ABSTRACT
Taguchi Ukichi (1855–1905) and Maeda Masana (1850–1921) are contrastive figures in Japanese economic thought in the Meiji Era. Coming from a scholar lineage under the Tokugawa shogunate, Taguchi met Western economics as a trainee in the Ministry of Finance (MOF) of the new government. He conceived the ambition to publish an economic press comparable to Economist (London) in Japan and realized it in Tokyo Keizai Zasshi. Maeda Masana, a Satsuma (Kagoshima) man, returned from his study in France to perform industrial promotion policy, including agriculture under Ōkubo Toshimichi. This chapter locates Taguchi’s classical economic liberalism and Meda’s industrial promotion policy, which was oriented toward indigenous sectors, compared to Fukuzawa Yukichi’s position. Although their policy orientations were quite different, both Taguchi and Maeda represented two types of gradualism grounded on the trust in the capability of the people – Taguchi in that of town people, and Maeda in that of country people.
