Japanese Colonialism in Comparative Perspective

Some argue that prewar Japanese colonial policy was developmental in Taiwan and the Republic Korea and Taiwan. For example, Landes (1998) has assumed  that the stellar performance of these two economies since 1960 must be due to the Japanese legacy. Other related studies emphasizes the positive aspects of the Japanese legacy, including the agricultural transformation, as well as the development of industry and transport infrastructure.

Booth and  Deng (2016) compare some economic indicators in Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria with those from other Asian colonies,  and deny that Japanese policies were uniformly more developmental than the policies pursued by other colonial powers in Southeast Asia. 

As shown in Table 1(Booth and Deng 2016),  growth in per capita GDP was positive

between 1913 and 1929 in most parts of colonial Asia with Taiwan having the fastest growth and India the slowest. This is consistent with the assumption of Landes (1998). 

On the other hand, Korean growth until 1929 was no faster than in the Philippines, and not much different from Burma or Indonesia.

Korea and Taiwan were different from each other. Table 7 shows that per capita consumption expendityres, rice intake, and crude death rate. It indiates that economic outcomes under Japanese  colonial policy might more effective in Taiwan.

Wheteher prewar Japanese colonial policy was "developmental"will be discussed futher in the future.