Living Standards in Prewar Japan and Maoist China

Abstract

Previous comparisons of living standards in Japan (1868–1941) and China (1949–78) have been hampered by the limited data. New materials published over the last decade have now filled many of the gaps on Japanese income distribution and China's famine. These materials make it clear that the process of early industrialisation was extremely painful in both countries, and that it is hard to present either as a development model for other nations to emulate.