The article misses one of if not the main factor in Japan's rapid industrialization. Tokugawa Japan was a police state and over the centuries society had become

The article misses one of if not the main factor in Japan's rapid industrialization. Tokugawa Japan was a police state and over the centuries society had become extremely regimented. At the beginning of the Meiji era, Japan's social resources were already very organized and easily commanded. I suspect he is also overstating the quality and spread of public education. Meiji Era literacy rates were much lower than people like to think. I've studied Japanese history quite a bit and find the Meiji Era the most interesting part of it, mainly because of the intellectual ferment, but his view of social conditions is too rosy.