While Japan, during the early years of the
Meiji restoration, also faced the possibility of colonization from a western power. These real
external threats might have helped to turn predatory to developmental states (see Grabowski,
1994; Gunnarsson and Lundahl, 1994; Kohli, 1994). Nationalism worked to build up the
nation state as happened in the mercantilist era from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries
in Europe. The power of nationalistic policy in the East Asian NIEs was the case to the extent
that any kinds of state decisions were intended to modernize the nation. Hence, it ensured the
co-operation of its population.