eigners were then allowed to trade at one of two places, the small port of Shimoda or the small fishing port of Hakodate in northern Japan:
This was the first of what would become known in later years as "market-opening packages." While thus attempting to limit the extent of foreign intrusion, Japan immediately launched an intensive and historic effort to catch up with the industry and technology of the west.
The Japanese then set out to learn what they could of the world they had shunned, but they did this as well in a way that benefited them much more than the West. Foreign experts were hired to come to Japan and transfer the technology and skills they had developed. Japan negotiated trade treaties so that foreigners were prevented from doing business in the interior of the country. Japan also avoided foreign investment and sought the technology of the West not to be "westernized" but to maintain her autonomy and purity as a society. All such efforts were at the behest and under the guidance of the government authorities, and this was a key element in the way Japanese business culture developed. Japan has always viewed the government as the leading force in economic matters. Growth was rapid so that by 1900 Japan's capital industries had reached a level of technology comparable to that of the West.
However, in spite of the record of Japanese growth and industrial capabilities before World War II, after the war the West came to think of Japan as a developing country. Clearly, this attitude ignored the reality of the level the country had reached before the war when it was already one of the world's leading industrial and military powers. The postwar economic growth of Japan has been considerable and has been described as a miracle. Japan once more started searching the world for technology and rededicated her energy to making up for lost time.
The surrender of Japan to the United States after the bombings o...