"After World War II, Japan reinvented itself as a shipbuilding powerhouse and began its rapid ascent in the global economy. Its expansion strategy integrated raw material procurement, the redesign of global transportation infrastructure, and domestic industrialization. This study identifies the key factors in Japan's economic growth and the effects this growth had on the reorganization of significant sectors of the global economy." "The authors discuss what drove Japan's economic expansion, how Japan globalized the work economy to support it, and why this spectacular growth came to a dramatic halt in the 1990s. They provide valuable insight into technical processes as well as specific patterns of corporate investment by drawing on studies of ore mining, steelmaking, corporate sector reorganization, and port/rail development. East Asia and the Global Economy introduces a theory of "new historical materialism" that explains the success of Japan and other world industrial powers. Here, the authors assert that the pattern of Japan's ascent is essential for understanding China's recent path of economic growth and dominance and for anticipating what the future may hold."--Jacket.