Takanori Matsumoto
The Role of Tradition in Japan's Industrialization: Another Path to Industrialization, 45-71, May 25, 2006
This chapter assesses the quantitative position of 'traditional' industries in the economy. Traditional industry - which accounted for the largest number of gainfully occupied workers - developed steadily in the modern era and continued to provide opportunities to workers that were not absorbed by the modern industrial sector. The role of the traditional commerce and service industries is emphasized, which functioned as a 'buffer' for economic fluctuations. The regional diversity of these industries is also analyzed using the statistical method of principal component analysis.