In Technology and Industrial Growth in Pre-War Japan, Yukiko Fukasaku examines development in Japan in the pre-War period, and views the achievements of this period as central to the present competitiveness of the country's industrial technology. She gives particular emphasis to the crucial role played by training and research in the accumulation of technological capability and the assimilation of imported technology.

Fukasaku shows that successful technology transfer and improvements to the imported technology made possible by research and role-training formed the basis of the great technological success of post-war Japan. She uses the Mitsubishi Nagasaki shipyard as a case study, looking at technological innovation and training as the key to long-term stability and economic success.

This study has important implications for industrial development worldwide. Japan's starting point over a century ago was similar to the present conditions of many developing countries, andthe book's emphasis on the acquisition of better skills as a key to development worldwide is as relevant to the United States and Europe as it is to the Third World.