On Building a Modern Japan: Science, Technology, and Medicine in the Meiji Era and Beyond

Abstract

In the late nineteenth century, the Japanese embarked on a program of westernization in the hope of building a strong and modern nation. Science, technology and medicine played an important part, showing European nations that Japan was a world power worthy of respect. But how well-organized was the state and how close were government-business relations? The book seeks to answer these questions and others.