Japan is an industrial powerhouse despite so many obstacles that should theoretically hold it back. It imports most of its food and energy. Its geography is very mountainous and prone to natural disasters. The population is concentrated in certain areas rather than spread out. It's facing a demographic crisis.
And yet...Japan is still a world leader when it comes to numerous industries. It produces the most reliable vehicles (Toyota, Honda, Mazda, etc.), reliable office equipment (Brother, Canon, etc.), and amazing consumer electronics (Sony, Nintendo, Panasonic, Toshiba, etc.). It also has a very powerful military despite the constitutional restrictions.
Japan also excels in soft power. From video games to anime/manga to sushi/ramen, Japan is arguably the strongest non-English speaking soft power in the world.
Which leads to the question...how? How did they manage to build an economy so robust and antifragile despite the many obstacles in its way? What are the best books to learn about the economic history of Japan and how it became a great power economically?
All these above points contributed to Japan's great economic performance in the past. However, Japan always lacked in being competitive on global stage in software. Especially in this startup era where time to market and MVP are very important. Lack of English language skills and workforce diversities have been two other roadblocks. do check this link - https://www.employmentjapan.com/tech-corner/startups-ecosyst... which mentions some of the main reason that Japan has been lagging behind on startups scene.
Things are changing now and many progressive tech companies started realizing the importance of change - however, the traditions are so deeply tooted in the business scene that changes are slow.
2)Around 1850 the Emperor died and the top civil service agreed that the European approach was better than the previous pseudo chinese approach. With characteristic industriousness the japan turned their 18 hour work days to learning and improving all things European. Afterall working an office beat working in the fields.
3) Roll ahead 100 years and Japan was able to fight toe to toe across the Pacific against the US.
Note: the japanese process can work with agrarian cultures but not with hunter gather cultures because sitting in an office is not a step up from hunting with your friends in the forest.
My suggestion would be to study the history of China and Japan in the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially paying attention to how Japanese elites looked at Western ideas and technologies and thought about how to integrate them or exclude them from Japanese society. Note how their approach was different from that of China. The Kyoto School is a good example in the philosophy world.
If you are up for reading fiction, the Asia series by James Clavell covers the economic history of both China (including Hong Kong) and Japan from the mid-19th century to the 1970s.
It's a dated book, 1988, but kind of gives a broad overview of a handful of major aspects. It was published by Nippon Steel Corp. I think the biggest effect of that is to shy away from controversial topics. Anyway it still comes to mind 8 years later so I feel like it's worth mentioning.