published_or_final_version / Japanese Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

Economic development is a major concern to the majority of countries in the world today as they strive to catch up to the industrial West. Japan has been the most successful non-Western country in building an economy which qualifies it as developed. Most studies of economic development in Japan focus on macro-level issues, particularly on analysis of the role government played in the development process. It is generally recognized that Japan's central government played a major role in fostering industrial development. It is unfortunate that this fairly centralized political structure has somewhat obscured the role that local government may have had in helping local economies grow. In a sense, these local development efforts were at least as important as what was going on at the national level, because if peripheral areas had not developed at all, they would have become a liability for the central government and the core areas. This study examines one particular aspect of the development process in Japan; specifically, local government's role in fostering economic development throughout the Meiji (1868-1912) and Taisho (1912-1926) eras. The silk industry in Shimane prefecture provides the context of the case study approach used. The analysis focuses on two key issues: the mechanisms used by local government and the impact of growth on the local silk industry and on the standard of living.

This dissertation considers the failure of the Japanese government from 1991 through late-1998 to take measures to bring swiftly under control the threat to the nation's finance system posed by nonperforming loans that arose with the collapse of the late-1980s land-price bubble. While some works plausibly argue that this record of delay, and a larger failure of the Japanese state to adjust its general economic policy strategy, can be attributed largely to a progressive fracturing of a 1950s consensus on basic economic policy objectives between relatively internationally competitive firms and firms more dependent on state protection of their business opportunities, this insight has led few scholars to enquire into the role played by advocates of the policy interests of Japan's most competitive large firms in producing the widely lamented policy of delay on nonperforming loans. Counter to the literature's preponderant emphasis on political pressure from protection-dependent firms as impediment to swift state adjustment to nonperforming loans and other economic policy challenges of the late-20th century Japanese state, this dissertation finds that state officials and expert commentators who in debates on nonperforming loans and closely related policy issues strongly advocated dismantling protections on which large numbers of firms depended and in their stead adopting policies more favorable to the firms best able to weather the harsh economic conditions of the 1990s, displayed willingness to tolerate further delay comparable to (and sometimes greater than) that shown by state officials and expert commentators who advocated greater solicitude for the protection-dependent. This finding is based chiefly on a reading of official Ministry of Finance policy statements, transcripts of hearings of relevant Japanese House of Representatives committees, public opinion polls, reporting and commentary published in two national-circulation and two local Japanese newspapers, and a variety of books and longer articles published in the mass-audience Japanese business press. This finding, I argue, suggests a need for more sustained critical analysis of the role of leading business interests in Japan's political processes, which in turn argues for a closer engagement than is now commonly attempted with the work of Karl Marx and Chalmers Johnson, and for following up some preliminary suggestions in the existing literature of an emergent economic policy dimension of Diet party competition. / text

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Japan experienced drastic economic, political, and social changes during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her modernization process has many notable charactertics. In this paper, I discuss an ideology which governed all aspects of the Japanese people's lives between 1868 and 1945 and the people's reaction to it. This ideology , which is now called Tennōsei ideology (the ideology of the Tennō system), was based on the myth that emphasized the divinity of the Tennō (emperor). The Meiji government developed and cultivated Tennō-sei ideology as the theoretical backbone of the government's modernization policy. When one studies the problems of modernization in Japan, Tennōsei ideology and the people's reaction to it should not be overlooked. However, it is quite difficult to know how common people, especially those of the lower social strata, reacted to the changes in their lives which were caused by modernization. During the period between the late Tokugawa era and the late Meiji era, many new religious movements were born. Most founders' of those new religions experienced many difficulties firsthand and expressed critical views of modernization. They attracted people who suffered from the economic, political, social, and religious changes occuring during the rapid modernization process. This paper focuses on examining the religious teachings of Deguchi Nao, the founder of Omoto-kyō, because her writings, called Ofudesaki (Tip of A Writing Brush), contain the sharpest criticism against the Meiji government's policies and the Tennō. I examine religious currents in the late nineteenth century to find out why a large number of new religious movements developed during this period. Also the background of the Tennōsei ideology and how the Meiji government systematically made the ideology penetrate into Japanese people's minds are discussed in Chapter One. In Chapter Two, Deguchi Nao's life experiences as the background of her religious teachings are examined. For the purpose of clarifying Nao's religious ideas, I analyze her early Ofudesaki in chapter three. Through Ofudesaki, the Kami, Ushitora-no-Konjin, warned the people that the present world would be demolished unless they repented their sins quickly. Nao used only simple and unsophisticated expressions when she wrote Ofudesaki, but in it one can find her original mythology and view on salvation. In 1899, a man named Ueda Kisaburō (later changed his name to Deguchi Onisaburō joined . Nao's group. Although Onisaburō is considered by present Omoto-kyō followers as a co-founder of the organization, there were fundamental differences between Nao and him. Onisburō's religious and social background are discussed in chapter four. In chapter five, those ofudesaki written between 1896 and 1899 are analyzed, especially focusing on a series of pilgrimages, called Shussu, led by Nao. I also discuss whether it is appropriate to categorize Nao's religious group as a millenarian movement. Since the Meiji government was maintained by the myth of a 'divine' Tennō, the existence of a new religion which held an independent mythology could be considered a serious threat to the Tennō and his government. In conclusion, I re-examine the struggle between the Meiji government and the new religious movements as an important element of Japan's modernization process. / Arts, Faculty of / Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department of / Graduate

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This research presents an in depth discussion and analysis on U.S. Japanese foreign trade. It is divided into two parts. The first hypothesis states that the appreciation of the dollar in the early eighties is positively correlated with the U.S. trade deficit, especially with Japan. The second hypothesis states that Friedrich Von Hayek's Theory of Social Order applies to the development of capitalism in that country. This can also be divided into two parts, a) this generation of Japanese consumes, saves, and invests differently than previous generations, and b) Japanese consumption and investment patterns follow U.S. consumption and investment patterns with a lag.

The postwar transformation of the international environment has caused economic issues to become a main source of contention among industrial states. The trade imbalance between Japan and its trading partners became a major source of conflict. Reciprocity of access and opening the market of Japan became the main point of debate and the major issue affecting relations between Japan and the United States. While the distinction between the domain of domestic and international politics increasingly is blurred, different domestic political economies create bilateral political and economic conflict. The structure and politics of intercorporate groups or vertical keiretsu are a major feature of Japan's industrial structure and political economy. This case study examines how vertical keiretsu in the automobile and home electric appliance industries affect the Japanese political economy and international trade. A political economy approach focuses on the political context of economic phenomena by analyzing both political and economic variables. Case studies of keiretsu were used in order to gain an understanding of Japan's political economy. A number of propositions or assumptions about the political economy and the dynamics of keiretsu were examined in these studies. It was found that vertical keiretsu influences the industrial sector, trade, and foreign policies in Japan. Japan's industrial policies cannot fully be understood without taking keiretsu into consideration. Scholars have not yet fully considered vertical keiretsu as major actors in the Japanese political process. Their political influence on industrial policies has largely been overlooked. Vertical keiretsu in the automobile and home electric appliance industries were found in the case studies to have been shaping industrial policies since the early post war years. Findings about the nature of Japan's political economy help to explain the conflictive bilateral relationships between Japan and the United States. The findings also show that understanding political economies of nations is increasingly important as the world economy grows and greater trade interaction is imminent.

published_or_final_version / Japanese Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

La thèse comporte deux parties. Dans la première partie (Chapitres 1 et 2), un examen des déterminants des interventions officielles sur le marché des changes est proposée. Dans la second partie (Chapitres 3 et 4), c'est la problématique des interventions dites « secrètes » qui est étudiée. <p><p>Chapitre 1: « Talks, financial operations or both »<p><p>Ce chapitre propose une nouvelle approche aux fonctions de réaction permettant d’examiner, dans un même modèle, les déterminants des différents types d’interventions (les interventions effectives et les interventions orales). Le modèle permet de mieux comprendre les choix stratégiques des autorités (opérations financières ou simple politique de communication) et d’en évaluer le degré de substituabilité ou de complémentarité.<p><p>Chapitre 2 :« The institutional organization underlying interventions »<p><p>La structure institutionnelle sous-jacente au processus d’intervention (interactions entre le Ministère des finances et la banque centrale) est explicitement incorporée dans le modèle proposé dans ce chapitre. Cette approche permet d’évaluer, dans quelle mesure, le Ministère des finances (l’autorité responsable de la politique de change), en intervenant sur le marché, internalise les objectifs de la banque centrale(l’agent du Ministère pour l’implémentation des ordres d’intervention).<p><p>Chapitre 3 :« The secrecy puzzle »<p><p>Ce chapitre propose une évaluation empirique des différents arguments théoriques expliquant le recours aux interventions secrètes. Le travail repose sur l’examen économétrique d’une fonction de stratégie, dans laquelle, des déterminants relatifs à la décision d’intervenir secrètement d’une part et, d’autre part, des déterminants relatifs à la détection des interventions par le marché sont incorporés.<p><p>Chapitre 4 :« A unified approach to interventions »<p><p>Un modèle unique, permettant d’expliquer les trois étapes du processus d’intervention, est proposé dans ce chapitre. Ces trois étapes sont relatives (i) au choix d’intervenir, (ii) au choix d’intervenir de façon secrète et (iii) à la perception des interventions par le marché. Grâce à l’inclusion de déterminants spécifiques pour ces différentes étapes, cette approche multidimensionnelle permet d’appréhender leurs interrelations et, donc, de mieux comprendre les différents arbitrages réalisés par les autorités lorsqu’elles décident d’intervenir. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished