{"id":4651,"date":"2025-01-15T21:11:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T21:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/?p=4651"},"modified":"2025-08-15T01:09:24","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T01:09:24","slug":"feb-6-colonial-taiwan-and-the-nature-of-japans-pharmaceutical-industry-with-timothy-m-yang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/taiwan\/2025\/01\/15\/feb-6-colonial-taiwan-and-the-nature-of-japans-pharmaceutical-industry-with-timothy-m-yang\/","title":{"rendered":"FEB 6 – ‘Colonial Taiwan and the Nature of Japan’s Pharmaceutical Industry’ with Timothy M. Yang, University of Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Join us Thursday, February 6 at 3:30 \u2013 5:00 PM in Thomson 317, and online<\/strong> for ‘Colonial Taiwan and the Nature of Japan’s Pharmaceutical Industry’ <\/strong>with Timothy M. Yang, <\/strong>University of Georgia. This talk is based on Yang’s recent book ‘A Medicated Empire: the Pharmaceutical Industry and Modern Japan’ (Cornell University Press, 2021).<\/p>\n

In this talk, Professor Yang explores the relationship between Japan\u2019s early twentieth-century pharmaceutical industry and its colonial regime in Taiwan. It does so by examining the activities of Hoshi Pharmaceuticals, one of the most influential drug companies in Asia of its time.<\/p>\n

Like its competitors, Hoshi depended on colonies like Taiwan as reservoirs for medicinal resources and markets for consumer goods. Taiwan was the company\u2019s largest overseas market for its patent medicines, its primary source of crude morphine, and the location of company-managed plantations for producing quinine and cocaine. Japan\u2019s colonial regime in Taiwan, in turn, relied on Hoshi to help advance its health and hygiene programs, particularly its effort to gradually suppress the problem of opium addiction through a state-run opium monopoly. In 1925, however, the outbreak of an international opium trading scandal\u00a0shined\u00a0a negative light on the thick connections between state and company,\u00a0which\u00a0contributed to Hoshi\u2019s bankruptcy in the early 1930s and challenged the colonial regime\u2019s legitimacy. Combining global histories of business, medicine, and empire, this talk shows how the pharmaceutical industry simultaneously supported \u2013 yet, in important ways \u2013 also subverted Japan\u2019s imperial mission in Taiwan.<\/p>\n

Timothy M. Yang<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0an Associate Professor in the Department of History and the Director of the Center for Asian Studies at the University of Georgia. He specializes in the cultural and socio-economic history of modern Japan as well as Japan\u2019s relationship to Asia and the rest of the world. His current research focuses on the politics of agriculture, environment, and capitalism in post-World War II Japan through a re-examination of land reform during the Allied Occupation. He is the author of\u00a0A Medicated Empire: The Pharmaceutical Industry and Modern Japan\u00a0(Cornell University Press, 2021), which was co-awarded the 2022 Hagley Prize in Business History.\u00a0He holds an A.B. from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.<\/p>\n

REGISTER HERE<\/a> for in-person or online attendance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Free and open to the public.<\/p>\n

This event was made possible by the generous support of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Join us Thursday, February 6 at 3:30 \u2013 5:00 PM in Thomson 317, and online for ‘Colonial Taiwan and the Nature of Japan’s Pharmaceutical Industry’ with Timothy M. Yang, University of Georgia. This talk is based on Yang’s recent book ‘A Medicated Empire: the Pharmaceutical Industry and Modern Japan’ (Cornell University Press, 2021). In this<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":4654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,65],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-4651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-video","tag-2024-25-event","region-china","region-japan","region-taiwan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFEB 6 - 'Colonial Taiwan and the Nature of Japan's Pharmaceutical Industry' with Timothy M. 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