The Japanese Miracle  Nikita, Sam, and Eileen

Impact of WWII When the military forces were disbanded  7.6 million troops and the end of military production and other military related jobs caused another 4 million people to go jobless.  About 1.5 million were forced to return to Japan from abroad and in total, approximately 13.1 million people were unemployed.  However, large-scale unemployment never actually took place.  This is because in 1947, agriculture absorbed a labor force of 18 million  About 4 million more than before the war Low-income “underemployed” persisted long afterwards

Shortages of energy and food The main source of energy was coal but its output dropped significantly after the defeat.  The Koreans and Chinese who had been subjected to forced labor in the coal mines were refusing to continue, and coal mining was in a state of virtual paralysis. The output of nation’s food supply, which mostly consisted of rice, was also in shortage.  Without fuel or food, people feared that they would starve to death during the winter of 1945- 1946.  For this reason, many jobless people worked in agriculture and coal production right after the defeat. The biggest reason for this drop was the 

Inflation This problem arose primarily because large volume of funds for provisional military expenses had flowed into circulation: the salaries of the demobilized troops payments for completed orders of military goods  advance payments  compensation for losses This problem was resolved with the implementation of the Dodge Plan in 1949. Which was another major problem after the defeat

Occupation of Japan Since the economy needed assistance the Allied powers (mainly the US and General Douglas MacArthur) occupied Japan. Step 1. MacArthur wanted to establish economic demilitarization and ensure that all production of military materials had stopped and closed down. Led to the formation of the Constitution of 1947 In addition, there were three major reforms set forth during the Occupation Breakup of the zaibatsu, land reform, and labor democratization

Break up of the Zaibatsu Implemented by breaking up the holding companies, which were the core of zaibatsu control, and to sell their stock to the public.  The democratization policies were able to achieve success by the creation of two laws, which were Anti-Monopoly Law and Decentralization Law. Anti-Monopoly Law was formed to prohibit all cartel activities and the Decentralization Law was created to force firms to reduce in size if any of the designated companies had market control.

Land Reform Landlords were forced to sell their holdings of land. These lands were bought up by the government for redistribution to tenant farmers.  The democratization policy of SCAP had two major objectives (1) to transfer land ownership to farmers who actually tilled the soil (2) to improve farm tenancy practices for those who continued as tenants.

Labor Democratization Another major reform conducted by the Occupation forces was aimed for labor democratization. The major achievement from this reform was that it enabled the Japanese to form labor unions.  The proportion of workers organized into labor unions rose rapidly, from zero in 1945 to nearly 60 percent in 1948-1949. This is a high rate since the international average is about 30%.

From reform to recovery: The Dodge Plan in 1948 As early as summer 1947, the Cold War tensions had started to build up in East Asia and the United States revised its policies towards Japan for the purpose of accelerating its economic recovery. The Dodge Plan in 1948, conducted by a Detroit bank president Joseph Dodge was implemented for the solution of bringing back Japan to full strength and ultimately removing American aid from Japan to prepare for the Cold War. He introduced three basic policies to mainly resolve the serious problem of inflation and to establish stabilization in Japan. 

Three basic policies: a balanced budget the suspension of new loans from the Reconstruction Finance Bank.  reduction and abolition of subsidies.

The Dodge Plan The goal to accelerate the economy in such a short period of time with these three policies were almost impossible to achieve due to sudden adjustments, but with the start of the Korean War in 1950, the economy boomed. Although these policies left by Dodge caused problems, he has set the basis for recovery without American aid and the Occupation of Japan ended in 1951.  The work accomplished by Dodge had eliminated the financial problems in Japan and the Japanese were to achieve recovery through their own work by economizing and accumulating capital to be exposed to international competition.

The Korean War Boom The early period of the Dodge Plan caused Japan to enter into recession and labor unrest increased, and a full-scale depression was feared. From 1950, when the Korean War began, to 1951, the total amount of world trade increased by 34 percent and many countries including Japan experienced a significant boom of its economy.  Japan’s production increased by nearly 70 percent and as far as business firms were concerned, it provided a greater boost than anything else to its economic recovery, since many firms were with the burdens of reconstruction.   the Korean War had increased the effect on plant and equipment investment and technological innovation.  Due to these rapid increases in production and economy as a whole, full recovery and stabilization was obviously achieved well beyond the end of the war and Japan restored its independence with the signing of the Japanese-American Security Pact in 1952.

Economic Miracle: Factors for growth The unique characteristic and ability of the Japanese people to imitate and improve the skills learned, and then applying them to their own system was the most important factor for their successes. One of the factors that the Japanese made use of their unique characteristic to expand the economy was to improve and make practical use of technologies and technological know-how’s imported from foreign countries.  Japan’s steel industry successfully improved the quality of the special steel used in automobiles and as a result of technological progress in the casing of parts, the automobile industry, too, grew into an industry to be able to compete in international markets for the first time. 

Economic Miracle: Factors for growth The dissolution of the zaibatsu was the primary event that enabled Japanese firms to become more flexible and to go through a change process.  The first change was that there was a complete change of managers and eliminated the trend of owner-managers. Due to these managers, better working conditions within firms were achieved and enabled both domestic and international competition.  Another changing business condition was the stability of labor management relations.  The company unions demonstrated their loyalty in return for the favorable system and made the management of employees easier.

Political factors for growth There are two major policies that led to Japan’s rapid growth-  the Yoshida Doctrine, in which shaped the postwar economy in Japan to recovery. The policy was aimed to set economic reconstruction and development as the nation’s immediate goals while saving on military expenses by leaving defense to the U.S. army. This significant reduction on military spending has allowed Japan to put all its strength and money solely on reconstructing the economy and it was very influential to the rapid recovery after the defeat. 

Political factors for growth the Income Doubling Plan in 1960-  it was aimed to double the income earned by the Japanese workers and set a high living standard from the period of 1961 to 1970 by greatly increasing the amount of investments made by the central government to both private and public firms.  due to such a heavy industrialization during the plan, major problem of pollution came to an issue and it had to be dealt with in the proceeding few years afterwards.   this plan has contributed greatly to the later half of Japan’s rapid growth with an average growth rate of 10.8 percent in the late 1960s and drove the economy to become the second largest in the world by the year 1968.

Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) mostly responsible for the industrial growth in Japan. The Ministry’s approach was one of providing encouragement and guidance to the initiatives of private business: creating a suitable un-level playing field which would give that critical advantage to industries identified by government as having potential for long-term success. The main targets that MITI focused for growth were in the industries of steel, shipbuilding, chemicals, and machinery.  Large amount of financial aid and assistance was given to the companies MITI thought were important for economic growth of the country and it was somewhat unfair to the companies who were not receiving help. Another role that MITI had to explain its importance was that they had distributed new technologies to companies to promote even growth within industries. 

Political Factors for Growth Rapid economic growth can be attributed to the efforts of the Japanese people, but economic policies had a certain role too Two major policies – The Yoshida Doctrine and the Income Doubling Plan of 1960

The Yoshida Doctrine Developed by PM Yoshida Shigeru during the early days of the Korean War Shaped postwar economy of Japan Aimed to set reconstruction as the nation’s immediate goals while saving on military expenditures. Defense was up to the US Arm Advocated a pacifistic, nonmilitary role for Japan and formed the core of its contemporary diplomatic identity

The Income Doubling Plan Implemented by Ikeda, a significant figure in Japan’s growth Aimed to double the income earned by the Japanese workers and set a high living standard from the period of 1961 to 1970 by greatly increasing the amount of investments made by the central government to both private and public firms Also aimed to increase the amount of foreign trade with other countries Caused other issues due to the heavy industrialization such as pollution in the years to follow Overall, it contributed greatly to the later half of Japan’s rapid growth with an average growth rate of 10.8 percent in the late 1960s and drove the economy to become the second largest in the world by the year 1968

Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Regarded as the most powerful government organization during the time of rapid expansion, responsible for industrial growth Provided encouragement and guidance to the initiatives of private business by creating a suitable un-level playing field which would give that critical advantage to industries identified by government as having potential for long- term success Main targets for growth were in the industries of steel, shipbuilding, chemicals, and machinery

Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) Large amount of financial aid and assistance was given to the companies MITI thought were important for economic growth of the country and it was somewhat unfair to the companies who were not receiving help Another role that MITI had to explain its importance was that they had distributed new technologies to companies to promote even growth within industries MITI’s guidance and distribution of technologies helped Japan industrialize as a whole, leading to economic growth