Industrial development in Asia has been remarkable since the end of World War II. Most spectacular was Japan’s emergence as a global manufacturing superpower in the first postwar decades, but more recently the focus has been on countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Nonetheless, Asia’s industrial output is still far less than its proportion of world population. Although heavy industry has been important to the economies of the larger Asian countries, light manufacturing has been more conspicuous. In the lesser-developed and newly industrialized countries, labour-intensive industries have remained the most important. Medium-technology industries have been significant in many ...(100 of 38030 words)