From Emulation to Innovation: Japanese Toy Exports to High-Income Countries Before World War II

Abstract

This chapter explores how newly introduced “small things” cleared a path to export markets , specifically markets in Europe and North America from which the products originated. As opposed to the basic “flying geese model”, the toy manufacturing industry in modern Japan depended on the overseas market from an early stage of its development, targeting affluent consumers in the West. Therefore, it is clear that relatively low wages were not sufficient for Japan to be competitive in the global market, even though toy manufacturing was generally labor-intensive. Without direct transfer of market information by Westerners, toy traders in Japan made every effort to acquire useful knowledge concerning new products and accumulated manufacturing as well as design skills. Merchant organizers played key roles to connect market information with production, and the potential competition among traders in terms of developing designs and devices contributed to form active responses to the market. Although this competitive situation caused emulation problems, which might have undermined the effort to create brand-new designs and devices, they could be relieved through both formal and informal institutional measures, at least among the domestic traders. This can be recognized as another aspect of the “copy culture” in modern Asia.