Economic and Social Changes, 1900-30

*Zaibatsu: Private Initiative or Crony Capitalism?

Conglomerates

Family owned

Close ties to government

Mitsui
Mitsubishi
Sumitomo
Yasuda

*Mitsubishi

Iwasaki Yataro, 1835-85

Farming family

Tosa financial manager, 1865

*Crony capitalism?

Tosa assets and debts, 1870

11 steamships and other enterprises

Meiji steamships, 1874-5

Nagasaki Shipyard, 1883

Mitsui

Dry goods stores, 1800s

Supplied Tokugawa armies

*Crony capitalism?

Collected public tax revenues, 1868-82

Miike coal mine, 1888

Mitsui Bank

Loans to govt officials, 1870s-80s

Tomioka Silk Reeling Factory, 1893

"Drawing by the famous cartoon artist Wada Kunibo was titled 'The Era of the Prosperous New Rich'” (Gordon, p. 145)

Based on the cartoon, what is the popular view of the big businesspeople in Japan?

Based on the chart below, what was the relative importance of small businesses and Zaibatsu in Japan's economic development?

"Small family businesses...such as this store selling dolls, photographed in 1920" (Gordon, p. 153).

Based on Fumiko's memoir and this photo, how did consumers make purchases in Japan's towns and cities? How did this differ from the traveling peddlers in Kobayashi’s village?

War and export-driven economy

Economic Growth Rates

Boom and bust economy

1910s

6.15% average growth/year

9% average growth/year during WWI

Munitions, heavy equipment, and chemicals to Allies

Textiles to Asian markets

Inflation

1918 rice riots

1920s

3.34% average growth/year

Increased international competition

Members of a tenant farmer family on the way to their fields in the 1920s. (Gordon, p. 150)

Based on this photo and Fumiko’s life in the countryside, what were living conditions like in rural Japan?

Heavy Industry

Meiji economy dependent on iron and steel imports

*Yawata Ironworks, 1901

Diet approves, 1894

Significance of date?

Opens, 1901

1/3 of domestic production, 1911

Unprofitable

Privately-owned ironworks (zaibatsu)

Supplied 1/4 of domestic demand, 1913

Japanese steel production, 1913

Output 1/100 of US, 1913

Without colonies Japan's comparative advantage is in textiles

Social Change in Early 20th c. Japan

Social behavior

Individualism

Stylish “modern girls” striding briskly along the streets of Tokyo in 1930 (Gordon, p. 162). How do the moga represent a trend among some youth to adopt individualism over the traditional collective values?

Union movements

Labor-Oriented Political Parties

Socialists

Communists

Universal male suffrage granted, 1925

Peace Preservation Law, 1925

Censorship

Bans groups against national polity and private property

Depression, 1929-1931

Economic crisis

Cities

Exports fell 50%,

Countryside

Silk cocoon price

1925-29, 30% drop

1929-31, 30% drop

Who is in power in the cabinets at this time?

Make-up of Cabinet

1924-32

Prime Minister represented political party

*Inukai Tsuyoshi assassinated May 15, 1932

Average of 9 out of 12 cabinet ministers from parties

1932-40

No Prime Minister was a party politician

Average of 3 out of 13 cabinet ministers from parties