“Hiroshi Onishi’s book is an invaluable addition to the canon which the late Makoto Itoh helped establish. It serves both as a textbook and as a historical introduction to the entire development of modern capitalist society from a historical materialist perspective. An indispensable read” Alan Freeman, University of Manitoba

The West has a lot to learn from Japanese Marxian economics, which brings concepts like surplus value, class, the exploitation of labor, and commodification into dialogue with neoclassical economics. This innovative work, following in the footsteps of Nobuo Okishio, Michio Morishima and Kei Shibata, provides a historical perspective on political economy and labor exploitation using extensive mathematical modelling.

Suitable for students of economics, this is a new way to approach mainstream economics from a Marxian angle, and a fresh perspective on historical materialism.

Hiroshi Onishi engages with recent developments in Marxian economics and demonstrates the lasting power and salience of Marxian analyses for contemporary economies. In particular, Onishi explores how capitalism emerged out of pre-capitalist societies, the origins and sources of exploitation, and uneven accumulation. This book makes use of modern analytical tools and empirical data to develop its claims, and it profiles the author’s distinctive synthesis of a theory of exploitation and a Marxian approach to optimal growth.

Hiroshi Onishi is Professor Emeritus at Keio University and Kyoto University in Japan, and a vice-chair of the World Association for Political Economy.