The Beginnings of the Japanese Medical Instruments Industry and the Adaptation of Western Medicine to Japan, 1880–1937 |
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| Authors: | Pierre‐Yves Donzé |
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| Institution: | Osaka UniversityThis work was supported by a Grant‐in‐Aid for Scientific Research, (B) 25380424. A first draft of this paper was presented at the annual conference of the Socio‐Economic History Society of Japan, Tokyo, in June 2013, and at the annual meeting of the European Business History Association, Uppsala in August 2013. I wish to thank the participants for their valuable comments and critics, in particular Patrick Fridenson, as well as two anonymous reviewers. |
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| Abstract: | This article focuses on the development of the Japanese medical instrument industry from the 1880s to the beginning of the war against China (1937). It argues that the growth of this industry relied on the adaptation of Western technologies to the Japanese environment. The article focuses on the learning processes adopted by Japanese entrepreneurs, revealing a major difference between small enterprises, engaged in innovation based on reverse engineering and cooperation with medical doctors, on the one hand, and large firms which benefitted from organisational facilities acquired through international technology transfer and cooperation with domestic R&D centres, on the other hand. |
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| Keywords: | L64 N65 O32 industrial organisation industrialisation Japan medical technology R&D |
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