page_title: Korea under Japanese rule
section_title: Economy and exploitation
hierarchical_section_title: Korea under Japanese rule / Economy and exploitation
caption_attribution_description: English: Population of Korea under Japanese rule
context_page_description: Japanese Korea was the period when Korea was under Japanese rule, between 1910 and 1945.
  Joseon Korea came under the Japanese sphere of influence in the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876 and a complex coalition of the Meiji government, military, and business officials began a process of Korea's political and economic integration into Japan. The Korean Empire became a protectorate of Japan in 1905 in the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 and the country was indirectly ruled by the Japanese through the Resident-General of Korea. Japan formally annexed the Korean Empire in 1910 in the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, without the consent of Gojong, the regent of the Korean Emperor Sunjong. The Japanese Empire had established the Korean Peninsula as a colony of Japan administered by the General Government based in Keijō which governed Korea with near-absolute power.
  Japanese rule prioritized Korea's Japanization, accelerating industrialization started by the Gwangmu Reform, building public works, and fighting the Korean independence movement.
context_section_description: Economic output in terms of agriculture, fishery, forestry and industry increased by tenfold from 1910 to 1945 as illustrated on the chart to the right. Princeton's Atul Kohli concluded that the economic development model the Japanese instituted played the crucial role in Korean economic development, a model that was maintained by the Koreans in the post-World War II era.
  Randall S. Jones wrote that "economic development during the colonial period can be said to have laid the foundation for future growth in several respects." According to Myung Soo Cha of Yeungnam University, "the South Korean developmental state, as symbolized by Park Chung Hee, a former officer of the Japanese Imperial army serving in wartime Manchuria, was closely modeled upon the colonial system of government. In short, South Korea grew on the shoulders of the colonial achievement, rather than emerging out of the ashes left by the Korean War, as is sometimes asserted."
  A 2017 study found that the gradual removal of trade barriers (almost fully completed by 1923) after Japan's annexation of Korea "increased population growth rates more in the regions close to the former border between Japan and Korea than in the other regions. Furthermore, after integration, the regions close to Korea that specialized in the fabric industry, whose products were the primary goods exported from Japan to Korea, experienced more population growth than other regions close to Korea did."
  There were some modernization efforts by the late 19th century prior to annexation. Seoul became the first city in East Asia to have electricity, trolley cars, water, telephone, and telegraph systems all at the same time, but Korea remained a largely backward agricultural economy around the start of the 20th century. "Japan's initial colonial policy was to increase agricultural production in Korea to meet Japan's growing need for rice. Japan also began to build large-scale industries in Korea in the 1930s as part of the empire-wide program of economic self-sufficiency and war preparation." In terms of exports, "Japanese industry as a whole gained little ... and this is certainly true for the most important manufacturing sector, cotton textiles. This export trade had little impact, positive or negative, on the welfare of Japanese consumer." Likewise in terms of the profitability of Japanese investors: colonial Korea made no significant impact.
  According to scholar Donald S. Macdonald, "for centuries most Koreans lived as subsistence farmers of rice and other grains and satisfied most of their basic needs through their own labor or through barter. The manufactures of traditional Korea – principally cloth, cooking and eating utensils, furniture, jewelry, and paper – were produced by artisans in a few population centers."
  During the early period of Japanese rule, the Japanese government attempted to completely integrate the Korean economy with Japan, and thus introduced many modern economic and social institutions and invested heavily in infrastructure, including schools, railroads and utilities. Most of these physical facilities remained in Korea after the Liberation. The Japanese government played an even more active role in developing Korea than it had played in developing the Japanese economy in the late nineteenth century. Many programs drafted in Korea in the 1920s and 1930s originated in policies drafted in Japan during the Meiji period (1868–1912). The Japanese government helped to mobilize resources for development and provided entrepreneurial leadership for these new enterprises. Colonial economic growth was initiated through powerful government efforts to expand the economic infrastructure, to increase investment in human capital through health and education and to raise productivity.
  However, under Japanese rule, many Korean resources were only used for Japan. Economist Suh Sang-chul points out that the nature of industrialization during the period was as an "imposed enclave", so the impact of colonialism was trivial. Another scholar, Song Byung-nak, states that the economic conditi
caption: Population of Korea under Japanese rule
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