Local Origins in Japan

Abstract

This chapter notes the local origins of neomercantilism in Japan. The historical roots of East Asian neomercantilism are often linked to the importation of Western neomercantilist ideas to Japan after the Meiji Restoration. Many East Asian pioneers of neomercantilist thought were more inspired by local and regional mercantilist traditions than by engagement with the ideas of Western neomercantilists such as Friedrich List and Henry Carey. Most of the Japanese neomercantilist ideology in the Meiji period is built on mercantilist thought from Tokugawa Japan and older Chinese mercantilist ideas. The chapter explores the neomercantilism ideologies of Ōkubo Toshimichi, Fukuzawa Yukichi, and Maeda Masana in the early Meiji years.