Industrialization and urbanization in Japan: The emergence of public discontent

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses industrialization and urbanization in Japan. Japan has been a country of special interest to theorists of modernization because it is the most successful example of the transition among the countries outside the historical circle of western civilization. During the past quarter-century, Japan completed its modernization with rapid, intensive industrialization, and urbanization. Developments of comparable magnitude also occurred in the United States and European countries and it has become apparent that certain social issues associated with intensive industrialization were shared by all of these countries, including Japan. The policy of production, first among the capitalist nations also assumes that ideally the free market will make up for social deficiencies, absolutely, or relatively perceived that may accumulate in the system. The welfare gap appears to be a mixture of both absolute and relative deprivations, felt or perceived by large and growing segments of the Japanese population. Analysis of damage to the environment begins with the growth and concentration of industrial activities and the output of polluting or disrupting substances by these activities.