
The Perry’s Black Ship Arrival after World War II: Unveiling the Reconstruction of Japanese Economy
- 1 School of Cas, New York University,32WaverlyPl, New York, NY 10003, United States
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Japan has had two amazing turning points in its history, Perry's Black Ship and the economic miracle after WWII. Both helped Japan accomplish qualitative improvement and reform. The two may not seem to be directly related in history, but the similarities in history are always breathtaking. In addition, the negative impacts of both events for Japan share the same similarities. This essay will discuss the economic reforms and social changes that the Black Ships and World War II brought to Japan, allowing readers to learn more about the two turning points in the history of the Japanese economy and leading to reflections on the similarities. After researching and comparing the two time periods, it was found that both times had Japan under the “control” of other countries, and both caused great social reforms from “traditional” to “modernized.” The Japanese government was not a “traditional” country, but a “modernized” one. At the same time, the great transformation had a hard to reverse effect in Japan, with inflation, a widening gap between urban and rural areas, a decrease in the labor force (the suicide rate was the highest) and a disillusionment of the people with the government.
Keywords
Perry’s Black ship, economics miracle, urban-rural gap
[1]. Goto, J.C. (2009) Imperial Revolution: Embracing modernity, Modern Japan, Oxford University Press.
[2]. Gordon, A. (2002) A Modern History of Japan, Oxford University Press.
[3]. Leung, J. (2019) The Japanese Economy after WWII. Pacific Atrocities Education, Retrieved from https://www.pacificatrocities.org/blog/the-japanese-economy-after-wwii.
[4]. Karwowski E., Shabani M. and Bikas K. (2020) The Japanese Balance Sheet Recession 20 years on: Abenomics economic Revival or Corporate financialization. UEL Research Repository, 20, 3-10.
[5]. Mitsuhiko, T. (2016) Rethinking the “Lost 20 Years” of the Japanese Economy. Retrieved from https://m.wyzxwk.com/content.php?classid=14&id=368468. Utopia.
[6]. Harmon, J. (2011) Effects of Inflation and Interest Rate on Land Pricing. Kansas State University. Retrieved from https://krex.k-state.edu/items/b82ced7f-94fd-4f64-b3c1-c2c3f535c486.
[7]. Paul, E.D (2018) The Reign of Emperor Akihito, 1989–2019: A History in Five Key Words. Education About Asia. 23, 3.
[8]. Minoru, K. (2019) Heisei Blues: The Post-Bubble Struggles of Japan’s Financial Sector. Nippon (Economy). Retrieved from https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00470/heisei-blues-the-post-bubble-struggles-of-japan%E2%80%99s-financial-sector.html.
[9]. Hu, P. (2019) From a "Growth Society" to a "Mature Society": The Transformation, Dilemma and Response of Japanese Society in the Heisei Era. Japanese Study. 5th Edition.
[10]. Anonymous. (2020) Capital Gains: People Across Japan Keep Moving to Tokyo. Nippon (Society). Retrieved from https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00643/capital-gains-people-across-japan-keep-moving-to-tokyo.html.
Cite this article
Wei,B. (2025). The Perry’s Black Ship Arrival after World War II: Unveiling the Reconstruction of Japanese Economy. Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences,148,103-108.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
Disclaimer/Publisher's Note
The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
About volume
Volume title: Proceedings of ICFTBA 2024 Workshop: Human Capital Management in a Post-Covid World: Emerging Trends and Workplace Strategies
© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who
publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this
series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published
version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial
publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and
during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See
Open access policy for details).