The Sound of the Whistle

Book excerpt: Steven Ericson has written what promises to be the most thorough study of the Japanese railroad industry in the English language. In addition to the body of research on the industry itself, Ericson has provided an astute analysis of the politics of development and the relationship between state and private enterprise in the Japanese railroad industry during the Meiji period. He explores the economic role of government and the nature of state-business relations in the course of Japan's modern transformation, and at the same time challenges the tendency of current scholarship to minimize the role of the Japanese government as well as commercial banks in Meiji industrialization. By providing a fresh perspective on the "strong state/weak state" debate through detailed analysis of the 1906-1907 railway nationalization, Ericson's study sheds new light on the Meiji origins of modern Japanese industrial policy and politics, filling a major gap in the available literature on the Meiji political economy.