Quantitative comparisons of living standards across Eurasia continue to conclude that the eastern side of the “great divergence,” including Japan, lagged behind the leading regions of Europe from early-modern times onwards. The “industrious revolution” model attributes this to the early spread in Europe of markets for labour and consumer goods. By contrast, in Japan, persistent household self-sufficiency must have precluded improvements driven by market participation. However, qualitative evidence on the history of the now globally renowned Japanese diet reveals how a different dietary pattern, involving continued household-based, non-market production activities, might nonetheless have generated improved living standards, even if these are invisible to quantitative assessment.

中文翻译：

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勤劳与分歧：比较历史视角下的生活水平、家务和日本饮食

欧亚大陆生活水平的定量比较继续得出结论，包括日本在内的“大分化”东部地区从近代早期开始就落后于欧洲主要地区。“工业革命”模式将此归因于劳动力和消费品市场在欧洲的早期传播。相比之下，在日本，持续的家庭自给自足必然排除了市场参与推动的改善。然而，关于现在享誉全球的日本饮食历史的定性证据表明，一种不同的饮食模式，包括持续的以家庭为基础的非市场生产活动，可能仍然会提高生活水平，即使这些在定量评估中是不可见的。