Foreign Direct Investment and Japanese Economic Development, 1899-1931

Too often accounts of the economic development of Japan underrate the impact of foreigners. Through statement or omission, for example, much of the literature on modern Japanese economic development attaches little significance to foreign direct investment (FDI) in that country's growth process. William Lockwood, the noted economic historian of Japan, concluded in one study that: "Except in the handling and financing of overseas trade in the early decades, one cannot fail to be impressed with the meager contribution of foreign business in Japan to the industrialization process" [11, p. 323]. Few studies have analyzed the development of foreign direct investment in Japan, published data are scarce, and standard economic histories sometimes do not even mention its existence. •