Asia is a vast, complex and diverse region. It has about one-third of the earth's land area and about one-half of the world's population. The world's major religions and cultures— Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Confucianism/Daoism and Buddhism— originated in Asia. In addition, it has diverse climates, geology, races, cultures, country areas, population sizes and resources. According to Maddison (2006, Table B-18), India had the highest GDP from 0– 1000 AD in the world, and China caught up with India after 1500 AD, which lasted until around 1820. China then fell behind the aggregate real GDP of 12 major European countries in 1870 and further fell behind that of the United Kingdom after 1913. The Industrial Revolution in the West during the nineteenth century did not spread to Asia, and Asia fell behind the West further during the era of Western colonialism. The economies of India, China and most of the Asian countries stagnated under colonialism and the imperialism of the European powers. Even two decades after World War II, “On the per capita basis the East [, Southeast, and South] Asian developing countries are in fact the world's poorest region” (Kirby 1967, 25; the brackets are the authors’).

Japan was an exception in Asia. It was the only country in Asia to shed feudalism and start modernization in the late nineteenth century. Japan's policy of “Rich Country Strong Army” helped it rise up to annex Taiwan (1895) and Korea (1910), became a world power and eventually formed the “Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere.” While Japan tried to unite the East, Southeast and South Asians against European colonialism in the 1940s, it only proved to be another kind of Japan-centered imperialism and colonialism in Asia, and Japan was eventually defeated by the Allies in 1945.

Nevertheless, World War II brought a sea change in the world order. When the rest of Asia was still engaged in monocultural economic development and there was fighting among groups of nationalists, socialists, capitalists and communists, Japan recovered from the war damage quickly and, by benefiting from the Cold War and trading with the United States, achieved a highgrowth “Japan Miracle” in the 1960s. Japanese foreign direct investment then moved to Taiwan and Korea in the 1970s.