Japan in Motion: A Panel Exploration of Understanding Japan’s Social and Economic Changes through Historical Horizons (Late-19th Century to Mid-20th Century).

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel Proposal Application

Abstract

As the first nation outside of the established Western powers to embark on and obtain ‘first power’ political, economic and wellbeing status, Japan continues to play a central role in understanding the emergence of East Asia in the early-twenty-first century as an indispensable global actor. This panel will explore the foundations of this seismic geo-shift, encompassing economic development, prosperity and wellbeing, through the dynamics (motion) of the Tokugawa and Meiji periods and their legacy that encompassed the late-19th century to mid-twentieth century. The analysis and questions explored by the panel and papers, whilst addressing Tokugawa and Meiji motions and energies expended over a century ago, however, directly resonate in today’s Asia as powerfully as ever. How does an Asian household join the prosperity made available through global market engagement without damaging the wellbeing of the adult, and the children individually, and the family unit as a whole? How will Asia harness advanced education, science and technology to both enable security and prosperity, but on a sustainable basis (politically, economically, socially and environmentally)? Will Asia be able to deliver future prosperity that encompasses greater gender equality for females; within national institutions, in the world place, in their social/cultural lives, within the family? Will the rise of Asia see a higher level of wellbeing for all infants irrespective of nation or class? Collectively the panel and papers ask: Do historical horizons provide us with substantive understandings to delivering a future Asia defined by a horizon of prosperity, wellbeing and hope, or not?

Area of Study

• Northeast Asia

Session Organizer

• Ian Patrick Austin, Edith Cowan University Western Australia

Chair

• Kenichi Tomobe, Osaka University

Individual Presentations

• Fertility, Infant Mortality and Economic Development in Tokugawa and Modern Japan - Kenichi Tomobe, Osaka University

• Meiji Japan’s Observations, Exploration and Embrace of “The Age of Discovery” Foreign Tertiary and Technical Education for Reasons of Economic Development (1868-1912) - Ian Patrick Austin, Edith Cowan University Western Australia

• Silk, Cotton, and Tuberculosis:　Disease risks and Female Factory Workers in Modern Japan - Makoto Hanashima, National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience

• The Urban Penalty of Infant Mortality in the Early 20th Century in Osaka - Emiko Higami, Independent Scholar (Economics)

• Heights and Economic Development in Modern Japan: From the Anthropometric Analysis of School Registers of a Primary School, ca.1880s-1910s - Kimura Takako, Osaka University

Discussant

• He Wenkai, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology