Duke East Asia Nexus » Archive » Kishi Nobusuke life values inventory and A Dualistic Japan
There are few figures in Japan s modern history who generate as much controversy and as little understanding as Kishi Nobusuke (1896-1987). It is not hard to understand why. At one time or another Kishi was the Japanese leader of Manchuria; the head of Japan s Ministry life values inventory of Munitions; life values inventory a suspected Class A war criminal; one of the leading architects of Japan s economic miracle; and the Prime Minister of Japan (Kurzman 1960). Kishi is also perhaps the most startling example of the continuity of leadership that followed Japan s defeat life values inventory in World War II: the same men who led the war effort also led Japan s recovery from it. Although he was by no means the single most important figure either during or after the war, his thoughts and activities have had a long-lasting impact on the Japanese economy, most especially his development of industrial policy. As we will see, Kishi s wartime experiences explain a lot of his and by extension Japan s post-war success. This paper will seek to answer how Kishi s experiences during the Second World War affect Japan s post-war economic experience. In answering the above question we will come closer to understanding the complicated legacy of one of Japan s most controversial 20th century leaders, and in so doing, also come closer to understanding Japan s complicated World War II legacy, for the two can t be understood without each other.
There was much more than biographical continuity among many of the wartime and post-war leaders of Japan there was also a remarkable degree of institutional continuity as well (Gordon 2003). The most important post-war ministry was the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, also known as MITI which was established in 1949. Its predecessors, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) and the Ministry of Munitions (MM), grew in importance during the war effort despite barely existing before it. The MCI was brought into being in 1924 after the split of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, life values inventory and it is where Kishi Nobusuke got his start in the bureaucracy (Johnson 1982). Its recent origins made the MCI a marginal player in the Japanese bureaucracy, but its influence life values inventory would grow in step with Kishi s ambitions. By the time 1930 rolled around it was in charge of running Japan s economy, a testament to the severe economic crises of the late 1920 s and the ability of its leaders to address them. By the time, Kishi was still a junior-ranking bureaucrat. However, Yoshino Shinji, his senior mentor, was most responsible for the economic policy that came out of MCI at the time. Yoshino was the Vice Minister of MCI from 1931 to 1936, and his and Kishi s dominance of economic policymaking in the 1930 s has often been called the Yoshino-Kishi Line (Johnson 1982: 66). The two men are the inventers of industrial policy, whereby the state intervenes in markets life values inventory to allocate resources to certain strategic industries life values inventory and to see to it that they develop in line with larger national interests (Gao 1997).
The development life values inventory of industrial policy may be the most important legacy of Japan s tragic life values inventory war effort. In 1930, it was a consequence of Japan s own economic crisis and a much larger crisis life values inventory of capitalism that had resulted in a global economic depression. That year, at Yoshino s recommendation, Kishi left Japan for Germany, where he would spend seven months studying the experiments in state control of the economy that were already underway there (Johnson 1982). In July, he wrote to Yoshino of the German devotion to technological innovation in industries, to the installation of the most up-to-date machines and equipment and to generally increasing efficiency (Johnson 1982: 108). He noted how the German government had set up trusts and cartels to promote life values inventory production and employment, both of which had suffered life values inventory huge setbacks in the hyperinflationary 1920 s. When Kishi and Yoshino reunited in late 1930 they charged themselves with creating an economic policy that would serve as an antidote to Japan s economic ills, which were not all that different from Germany s.
In 1931, with the conflict in Manchuria escalating and the Depression lingering, Yoshino and Kishi collaborated to pass the Important Industries Law, which gave Japanese companies life values inventory the power to cartelize, using temporary treaties, in order to boost their production. That it was a slight modification on Kishi s 1930 statements reflects the influence of Yoshino s personal philosophy, which differed life values inventory slightly from that of his protégé. Yoshino believed that companies life values inventory could control their own cartelization and that relaxing competition coupled with state subsidies would allow them to boost production in the national interest. Kishi was in favor of something closer to the German life values inventory model where the state had control over cartelization and oversight of production (Johnson 1982). He would later employ this strategy as the head
There are few figures in Japan s modern history who generate as much controversy and as little understanding as Kishi Nobusuke (1896-1987). It is not hard to understand why. At one time or another Kishi was the Japanese leader of Manchuria; the head of Japan s Ministry life values inventory of Munitions; life values inventory a suspected Class A war criminal; one of the leading architects of Japan s economic miracle; and the Prime Minister of Japan (Kurzman 1960). Kishi is also perhaps the most startling example of the continuity of leadership that followed Japan s defeat life values inventory in World War II: the same men who led the war effort also led Japan s recovery from it. Although he was by no means the single most important figure either during or after the war, his thoughts and activities have had a long-lasting impact on the Japanese economy, most especially his development of industrial policy. As we will see, Kishi s wartime experiences explain a lot of his and by extension Japan s post-war success. This paper will seek to answer how Kishi s experiences during the Second World War affect Japan s post-war economic experience. In answering the above question we will come closer to understanding the complicated legacy of one of Japan s most controversial 20th century leaders, and in so doing, also come closer to understanding Japan s complicated World War II legacy, for the two can t be understood without each other.
There was much more than biographical continuity among many of the wartime and post-war leaders of Japan there was also a remarkable degree of institutional continuity as well (Gordon 2003). The most important post-war ministry was the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, also known as MITI which was established in 1949. Its predecessors, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) and the Ministry of Munitions (MM), grew in importance during the war effort despite barely existing before it. The MCI was brought into being in 1924 after the split of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, life values inventory and it is where Kishi Nobusuke got his start in the bureaucracy (Johnson 1982). Its recent origins made the MCI a marginal player in the Japanese bureaucracy, but its influence life values inventory would grow in step with Kishi s ambitions. By the time 1930 rolled around it was in charge of running Japan s economy, a testament to the severe economic crises of the late 1920 s and the ability of its leaders to address them. By the time, Kishi was still a junior-ranking bureaucrat. However, Yoshino Shinji, his senior mentor, was most responsible for the economic policy that came out of MCI at the time. Yoshino was the Vice Minister of MCI from 1931 to 1936, and his and Kishi s dominance of economic policymaking in the 1930 s has often been called the Yoshino-Kishi Line (Johnson 1982: 66). The two men are the inventers of industrial policy, whereby the state intervenes in markets life values inventory to allocate resources to certain strategic industries life values inventory and to see to it that they develop in line with larger national interests (Gao 1997).
The development life values inventory of industrial policy may be the most important legacy of Japan s tragic life values inventory war effort. In 1930, it was a consequence of Japan s own economic crisis and a much larger crisis life values inventory of capitalism that had resulted in a global economic depression. That year, at Yoshino s recommendation, Kishi left Japan for Germany, where he would spend seven months studying the experiments in state control of the economy that were already underway there (Johnson 1982). In July, he wrote to Yoshino of the German devotion to technological innovation in industries, to the installation of the most up-to-date machines and equipment and to generally increasing efficiency (Johnson 1982: 108). He noted how the German government had set up trusts and cartels to promote life values inventory production and employment, both of which had suffered life values inventory huge setbacks in the hyperinflationary 1920 s. When Kishi and Yoshino reunited in late 1930 they charged themselves with creating an economic policy that would serve as an antidote to Japan s economic ills, which were not all that different from Germany s.
In 1931, with the conflict in Manchuria escalating and the Depression lingering, Yoshino and Kishi collaborated to pass the Important Industries Law, which gave Japanese companies life values inventory the power to cartelize, using temporary treaties, in order to boost their production. That it was a slight modification on Kishi s 1930 statements reflects the influence of Yoshino s personal philosophy, which differed life values inventory slightly from that of his protégé. Yoshino believed that companies life values inventory could control their own cartelization and that relaxing competition coupled with state subsidies would allow them to boost production in the national interest. Kishi was in favor of something closer to the German life values inventory model where the state had control over cartelization and oversight of production (Johnson 1982). He would later employ this strategy as the head
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