Kaoru Sugihara

J. A. Allan

Japan is an economic power of global significance; it is also the world's largest single national importer of oil. These two facts alone are sufficient to indicate the significance of Japan's relationship with the Middle East. But in fact, Japan's particularly strong interests in the Middle East extend well beyond oil, and include banking, investment, and an increasing concern with economic assistance. The studies in this book deal with the relevant period of the twentieth century and especially with the rapid transformation of Japan's relationship with the region since 1973. It provides access in English to the current economic and political analysis by Japanese specialists concerned with the Middle East, and it will assist anyone interested in Japan's relationship with the region. The dependence of Japan on Middle Eastern oil is examined together with the changing nature of Japan's energy consumption policies at home, and its involvement in joint ventures in the Middle East. Japan's role as a major provider of economic assistance is reviewed, and its future potential role in this area is emphasised.

Japan and the Contemporary Middle East

Keijiro Otsuka

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND license. This book addresses the issue of how a country, which was incorporated into the world economy as a periphery, could make a transition to the emerging state, capable of undertaking the task of economic development and industrialization. It offers historical and contemporary case studies of transition, as well as the international background under which such a transition was successfully made (or delayed), by combining the approaches of economic history and development economics. Its aim is to identify relevant historical contexts, that is, the ‘initial conditions’ and internal and external forces which governed the transition. It also aims to understand what current low-income developing countries require for their transition. Three economic driving forces for the transition are identified. They are: (1) labor-intensive industrialization, which offers ample employment opportunities for labor force; (2) international trade, which facilitates efficient international division of labor; and (3) agricultural development, which improves food security by increasing supply of staple foods. The book presents a bold account of each driver for the transition.

Kaoru Sugihara

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