The Industrialization of USA and Japan: A Comparative Report

Ancero | Andres | Cierva | Lopez | Marron

Industrial Growth and Change of US and Japan

Economic Growth
The growth of US economy was mainly brought by external factors. While Japans early economic

progress was characterized by minimum foreign intrusion, xenophobic nationalism.

Productivity
USA grew faster in output terms more because of rapid growth in inputs and its underlying determinants

such as technical progress. Labor force was booming, thus productivity.

Japans productivity was rather uneven and low. Japans early industrialization started from Agricultural

economy, which would produce large population and low productivity.

Technology
US did not initiate anything in the 3rd Kondratiev, but played a major role in the 4th Kondratiev
Japanese Technology was characterized by selectively learning and borrowing from the technologies of

the countries they are trading with; mostly for agriculture.

Organization and Management
Horizontal vs. Vertical Management
Mass production in US was led by learning by using and learning by interacting method. The US also

incorporated line of staff or vertical (top to bottom) hierarchy of management.

In Japan, social relationship was the focus of the managerial system. Confucianism philosophy.

Furthermore, the Japanese incorporated a horizontal management.

Role of Government and Product Demands
In US, the demand is rapidly growing, due to rapid population rise looking for abundant land. And of

course, American governments intervention in the market is minimal, sometimes none at all.
The role of the state in Japaneses policies has been monolithic. Although, it has swung from strict state-

control economy to self-control economy post-war due to failure of the former; developmental state.