That mining could impact so powerfully on economic growth and on the physical environment reflects in part its own rapid transformation through the application of advanced technology. As Japan entered the modern era, the remarkable expansion of mining that had begun in the mid-sixteenth century had faded, in part as a result of technological barriers.6 Even in the areas of dressing and smelting, where Japanese methods were relatively sophisticated, innovation was hampered by a political system that restricted information transfer within Japan

and access to new technologies developed abroad. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, the situation had changed dramatically. Supported by the pro-industrial policies of the Meiji government, mining was transformed by new technologies, many of them adopted from the West. Modern pumps, lighting, and ventilation systems, blasting equipment, and transportation devices allowed easier access to ores; new metallurgical processes significantly raised the level of extraction. Rapid, thoroughgoing technological change on Western lines thus powered the explosive development of mining in the first half-century of Japan’s modern era.