Abstract
Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese War led to the incorporation of Korea into the Japanese empire. Japan’s growing power in East Asia coupled with the start of the Chinese Revolution in 1911 destabilized the region. Europeans and Americans feared that Japan and China might unite and threaten European and American strategic and commercial interests in the region. Proud of their economic and military achievements, Japanese leaders resented racist “Yellow Peril” rhetoric in Europe and exclusionary immigration policies in the United States. Hoping that international exchanges between business leaders would reduce tensions, Shibusawa Eiichi participated in several goodwill missions abroad after his retirement from most business positions in the early 1900s.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Carnegie, Andrew, and David Nasaw. 2006. The “Gospel of Wealth” Essays and Other Writings. New York: Penguin Books.
Duus, Peter. 1995. The Abacus and the Sword: The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895–1910, Twentieth-Century Japan 4. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Heald, Morrell. 2011. Business in the Era of Reform, 1900–1920. In Corporate Social Responsibility: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management, ed. Jean-Pascal Gond and Jeremy Moon, 181–210. New York: Routledge.
Hunter, Janet. 2016. “Deficient in Commercial Morality”?: Japan in Global Debates on Business Ethics in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Palgrave Studies in Economic History. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Iikura, Akira. 2004. The Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the Question of Race. In The Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 1902–1922, RoutledgeCurzon Studies in the Modern History of Asia 17, ed. Phillips Payson O’Brien, 222–235. London/New York: RoutledgeCurzon.
Jones, Geoffrey. 2017. Gapponshugi in Global Perspective: Debating the Responsibility of Capitalism. In Ethical Capitalism: Shibusawa Eiichi and Business Leadership in Global Perspective, ed. Patrick Fridenson and Kikkawa Takeo, 144–169. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Kenjo, Teiji. 2008. Shibusawa Eiichi: Dotoku to Keizai No Aida, Hyoden – Nihon Keizai Shiso. Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha.
Kim, Myungsoo. 2014. Sangyong Han’s Reading of Shibusawa and Application to Colonial Korea. Conference Paper presented at Association for Asian Studies. Philadelphia.
Kimura, Masato. 1991. Shibusawa Eiichi: Minkan Gaikono Soshisha. Chuko Shinsho. Tokyo: Chuo koron sha.
Lu, David. 1997. Japan: A Documentary History. Vol. 2. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe.
Murphy, Kevin C. 2003. The American Merchant Experience in Nineteenth-Century Japan. London/New York: Routledge Curzon.
New York Times. 1909a. Japanese Officials Held for Grafting, April 17, 1909.
———. 1909b. Japanese Sugar Scandals, August 15, 1909.
Oka, Yoshitake. 1982. Generational Conflict After the Russo-Japanese War. In Conflict in Modern Japanese History: The Neglected Tradition, ed. Tetsuo Najita and J. Victor Koschmann, 197–225. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Ryumonsha, ed. 1955. Shibusawa Eiichi Denki Shiryo. 58 vols. 10 supplementary vols. Tokyo: Shibusawa Eiichi Denki Shiryo Kankokai.
San Francisco Call. 1909. Man with an Ideal Needed by Nations, November 29, 1909.
Schiltz, Michael. 2012. The Money Doctors from Japan: Finance, Imperialism, and the Building of the Yen Bloc, 1895–1937, Harvard East Asian Monographs 339. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center/distributed by Harvard University Press.
Shibusawa Eiichi Kinen Zaidan, ed. 2012. Shibusawa Eiichi Wo Shiru Jiten. Shohan. Tokyo: Tokyodo Shuppan.
The Daily Capital Journal. 1909. Japanese Baron Is Sarcastic, December 17, 1909.
The Washington Herald. 1909. Trade Relations Secretary’s Topic, November 4, 1909.
———. 1921. Naval Proposals Fair – Shibusawa, November 22, 1921.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sagers, J.H. (2018). Business Leaders as Civilian Diplomats in Early Twentieth-Century Japan. In: Confucian Capitalism. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76372-9_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76372-9_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76371-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76372-9
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)