Japan opened its doors to the world 160 years ago when a U.S. fleet led by Commodore Perry, who held an official letter from President Fillmore, anchored off the coast near the capital city. After experiencing rapid economic development, Japan became the first industrial nation among non-Western countries.
In any event, the simple bivariate cross-country evidence, at least among  10  4  For a recent survey of these trends, see IMF (2007). BIS Review 144/2007  OECD countries (see Figure 2), suggests that more globalised countries have less, not more, income inequality. Again, I should stress that this is just prima facie evidence.