Editing Silk (section)

===Japan===
{{Main|Japanese silk}}
[[File:Silk Production in Japan - Weighing Raw Silk.jpg|alt=Four men weigh bundles of raw silk in Japan, in September 1918.|thumb|Silk Production in Japan - Weighing Raw Silk]]
Archaeological evidence indicates that [[sericulture]] has been practiced since the [[Yayoi period]]. The silk industry was dominant from the 1930s to 1950s, but is less common now.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.japantackle.com/Topics/japanese_silk.htm|title=Japanese Silk|work=JapanTackle}}</ref>
Silk from [[East Asia]] had declined in importance after  [[Smuggling of silkworm eggs into the Byzantine Empire|silkworms were smuggled]] from [[China]] to the [[Byzantine]] Empire.  However, in 1845, an epidemic of [[flacherie]] among European silkworms devastated the silk industry there.<ref>http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3024c/f443.table Gallica</ref>  This led to a demand for silk from [[China]] and [[Japan]], where as late as the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Japanese exports competed directly with Chinese in the international market in such low value-added, labor-intensive products as raw silk.

Between  1850 and 1930, raw silk ranked as the leading export for both countries, accounting for 20%–40% of Japan's total exports and 20%–30% of China's.<ref name="exp">{{cite web|url=http://personal.lse.ac.uk/mad1/ma_pdf_files/edcc%20sericulture.pdf|title=Why Japan, Not China, Was the First to Develop in East Asia: Lessons from Sericulture, 1850–1937|work=Debin Ma}}</ref>  Between the 1890s and the 1930s, Japanese silk exports quadrupled, making Japan the largest silk exporter in the world.  This increase in exports was mostly due to the economic reforms during the [[Meiji period]] and the decline of the [[Qing]] dynasty in China, which led to rapid industrialization of Japan whilst the Chinese industries stagnated.<ref name="exp"/>

During [[World War II]], embargoes against Japan had led to adoption of synthetic materials such as [[nylon]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/carotherspolymers.html|title=Wallace Carothers and the Development of Nylon - Landmark}}</ref> which led to the decline of the Japanese silk industry and its position as the lead silk exporter of the world. Today, China exports the largest volume of raw silk in the world.<ref>Anthony H. Gaddum, "Silk", ''Business and Industry Review'', (2006). ''In Encyclopædia Britannica''</ref>