Origins of Japanese Wealth & Power

This book focuses on the trans-Meiji Restoration story of the ideological transformation that made modern capitalism possible in Japan. At the end of the Tokugawa era, there was a shift away from traditionally hostile Confucian views of commercial growth toward economic development as the main source of national wealth, power and prestige. To illustrate this transformation, the book looks at four key architects of Meiji Japan's capitalist institutions: Okubo Toshimichi, Godai Tomoatsu, Matsukata Masayoshi and Maeda Masana.