num_pages: 450
description: In this thorough and detailed study of the development of the Japanese railroad industry during the Meiji period, Steven Ericson explores the economic role of government and the nature of state-business relations during Japan’s modern transformation. Ericson challenges the tendency of current scholarship to minimize the roles of the Japanese government and commercial banks in Meiji industrialization. By providing a fresh perspective on the “strong state/weak state” debate through a detailed analysis of the 1906–1907 railway nationalization, Ericson’s study sheds new light on the Meiji origins of modern Japanese industrial policy and politics, filling a major gap in the available literature on the Meiji political economy.
language: English
title: The Sound of the Whistle: Railroads and the State in Meiji Japan
titlecomplete: The Sound of the Whistle: Railroads and the State in Meiji Japan (Harvard East Asian Monographs)
ratings_count: 2
series: Harvard East Asian Monographs
publisher: Harvard University Asia Center