The rise of Japan from a position of relative international obscurity in the mid-nineteenth century to that of third largest industrial nation in the 1980s has elicited an enormous amount of interest among academics. This short book provides an overview of Japanese economic history between 1868 and 1941. It introduces and surveys the current state of scholarship on Japan, touching upon almost all elements of the Japanese historical experience. A select bibliography (now updated to 1994) is provided, to help the reader pursue the subject in more detail.