Abstract: In the 17th and 18th centuries, Japan imported a large number of raw silk, resulting in a large number of silver capital outflow. Therefore, the Tokugawa shogunate introduced protection and encouragement policies. This can be said to be the rehearsal of the role of government protection and support in the later modernization process of the silk industry. At the end of the shogunate,the business opportunities in the world raw silk market caused the export of Japanese silk products to surge, but also caused the coarse production, low quality, and a significant reduction in international reputation. In order to solve the above problems and promote the Japanese silk industry to enter the threshold of modernization, in the early Meiji period, the Japanese government opened government-run demonstration factories, conducted experiments on silkworm breed improvement, introduced and promoted new technologies, and advocated associations, playing the role of “midwife” to demonstrate and induce the modernization of the silk industry. After the private ownership in 1880, the Meiji government played the role of a “nanny” in supervising and supporting the silk industry revolution, contributing to the establishment of the comparative advantage of the Japanese silk market in the world.

Key words: Japan, silk industry, modernization, government role