Modernization of Japan and Cascading Behavior
http://www.e-ir.info/2013/11/04/chinese-and-japanese-responses-to-the-west-during-the-19th-century/
Chapter 19 discusses the diffusion of ideas in which a person will switch to a certain behavior if a certain fraction of their neighbors have adopted the behavior. If countries could be thought of as these singular nodes and their neighboring countries as their sources of influence, the ideas of diffusion in networks may be an apt model to explain why many Asian countries have been westernized. One of the earliest examples of Asian Westernization is seen in the 19th century modernization of Japan.
According to the articles, in the 19th century, Japan had long been practicing isolationism in which it did not partake in foreign affairs. The only country it was in contact with was the Netherlands, which provided Japan some ways and motivation to study the Dutch. However, the Industrial Revolution was rapidly spreading through Western countries, and Japan just could not keep up. Eventually, the United States was able to peacefully pressure Japan to open up its trade, and Japan realized that it would need to industrialize and adopt Western technology in order to become a globally recognized power.
To see how Japan’s modernization applies to cascading behavior, it is important to also consider the causes of China’s failure to modernize in comparison to Japan. Although China also practiced isolationism, the country, unlike Japan, failed in mimicking the Western World to quickly achieve industrialization when they were pressured to do so. I believe the main reason for this is that China had no ties to Western countries in their time of isolation, so it was impossible for China to learn how behind they were in terms of technology and militarization. On the other hand, Japan was connected with the Dutch, so in terms of cascading behavior, the proportion of Japan’s neighbors using the “behavior” of industrialization was higher than that of China’s. Thus, it was likelier that Japan would adopt Western practices much easier than Japan did. As the textbook says, “people tend to interact with people like themselves and it is difficult for information to diffuse into a tightly knit community”; here it is clear that Japan, in its willingness to explore outside options was much more susceptible to a behavior cascade whereas China could be seen as a “tightly knit community” into which the behavior could not penetrate. Another possible factor that caused Japan to experience the cascade over China is the possibility of a lower threshold in which Japan had to pass in order to adopt the Western practices. This assumption is based upon the fact that Japan already wanted to fix its leadership before it was pressured by the U.S. whereas China was inflexible. Regardless, it is clear that the phenomenon of Japanese Modernization in the 19th century was due to cascading behavior because Japan felt the pressure of its outside neighbors to adopt their “better” practices and eventually succumbed when an additional neighbor using the behavior was introduced.