From foot soldier to finance minister : Takahashi Korekiyo, Japan's Keynes

414 Pages·2007·5.906 MB·English

by  Richard J. Smethurst

From Foot Soldier
to Finance Minister
Takahashi Korekiyo
Japan’s Keynes
Harvard East Asian Monographs 292
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From Foot Soldier
to Finance Minister
Takahashi Korekiyo
Japan’s Keynes
Richard J. Smethurst
Published by the Harvard University Asia Center
Distributed by Harvard University Press
Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London 2007
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© 2007 by The President and Fellows of Harvard College

Printed in the United States of America

The Harvard University Asia Center publishes a monograph series and, in coordination with the
Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, the Korea Institute, the Reischauer Institute of Japanese
Studies, and other faculties and institutes, administers research projects designed to further schol-
arly understanding of China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, and other Asian countries. The Center also
sponsors projects addressing multidisciplinary and regional issues in Asia.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Smethurst, Richard J.
From foot soldier to finance minister : Takahashi Korekiyo, Japan’s Keynes / Richard J.
Smethurst.
p. cm. -- (Harvard East Asian monographs ; 292)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-674-02601-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Takahashi, Korekiyo, 1854–1936. 2. Statesmen--Japan--Biography. 3. Japan--Politics and
government--1912-1945. 4. Finance, Public--Japan--History. I. Title. II. Title: Takahashi Kore-
kiyo, Japan’s Keynes.
ds884.t3s64 2007
336.52092--dc22
[B]
2007011887

Index by Thomas Vecchio

Printed on acid-free paper

Last figure below indicates year of this printing
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07

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Yasuba Yasukichi and Tamaki Norio
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Acknowledgments
The research for my study of Takahashi Korekiyo began indirectly
in the late 1980s, amid the debate that erupted over my book on Japa-
nese agricultural development and tenancy disputes. Because some of
my critics argued that I had underestimated the impact of the Shōwa
depression on the countryside, I decided to study the Japanese econ-
omy of the early 1930s, and at the time gave several public talks on
the effects of the depression and the massive crop failure of 1934 on
rural northern Japan. As I investigated this period, the name Takahashi
Korekiyo, often with the epithet “Japan’s Keynes,” appeared repeatedly.
So I bought several biographies of him and began working backward,
from the Shōwa depression to Takahashi’s childhood. The more I read
about him, the more fascinated I became by the man—until at last I
decided to abandon the economic downturn for Takahashi.
Luckily for me, many Japanese scholars and journalists have written
books and articles about Takahashi, and he also left a large paper trail
of published and unpublished writings, in both Japanese and English.
Thus, I have had the good fortune to be able to take research trips to
archives in Tokyo, Iwate, and London, and to libraries in Tokyo, Kyo-
to, Ann Arbor, Princeton, New York, and both Cambridges. I wish
to thank the staffs at the RBSG Archives, the ING Baring Archive, the
HSBC Group Archives, and the Rothschild Archive in London, the
Bank of Japan Archive and Constitutional History Room of the Na-
tional Diet Library in Tokyo, and the Jewish American Archives in
Cincinnati, and among these archivists I would like to single out for
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viii Acknowledgments
particular thanks Caroline Shaw at the Rothschild Archive and Ōmiya
Hitoshi at the Bank of Japan Archive. I am also deeply indebted to suc-
cessive Japanese bibliographers at the Asian Library of the University
of Pittsburgh, Sachie Noguchi and Hiroyuki Good. A historian is only
as good as his sources, and I am happy to report having been able to
find them. Accordingly, I express my deep gratitude to the archivists
and librarians who have helped me.
I have also had the opportunity while doing the research for this
book to be affiliated with the historical section of the Institute for
Monetary and Economic Studies at the Bank of Japan. A series of
section chiefs—Shinpō Hiroshi, Ōkubo Takashi, Mutō Tetsu, and
Shizume Masato—not only tolerated my presence, but also encouraged
me greatly. Many of their staff members, particularly Ōnuki Mari,
Hatase Mariko, and Fujii Noriko, aided me significantly in my research.
Two old boys of the Institute, Ishida Sadao and Suzuki Kōichi, both
superb economic historians, advised me from early on in my project.
Another former staff member, Miyajima Shigeru, provided me with
essential bibliographical guidance in the early years of my project. All of
these people have spent hours consulting with me about my research,
listening to my presentations both in Japanese and English, and acting
as sounding boards for my ideas. And in the process, all of these people
have become close friends—in fact, I originally intended to dedicate my
book to them, but changed my plans for reasons that will become clear.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank the groups that have
funded my research over the years: the Japan Foundation, the Fulbright
Fellowship Commission, the Social Science Research Council, the Uni-
versity of Pittsburgh’s Asian Studies Center and University Center for
International Studies, and within those two centers, the Japan Iron and
Steel Federation Endowment Fund and the Mitsubishi Endowment
Fund.
I have also benefited from the advice, encouragement, and critiques
of a number of Japanese and American scholars and students. At Keio
University, my scholarly home in Tokyo in recent years, I am par-
ticularly indebted to Nishikawa Shunsaku, Maki Atsushi, and Tsuya
Noriko. Gordon Berger, Keith Brown, the late Olive Checkland, Sey-
mour Drescher, Frederick Dickinson, Steven Ericson, Sheldon Garon,
Inaba Chiharu, Janet Hunter, Itō Yukio, Gregory Kasza, Ellis Krauss,
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Acknowledgments ix
Stephen Large, Mark Metzler, Matsuda Koichirō, Thomas Rawski,
Charles Schencking, Sugihara Kaoru, Suzuki Toshio, and Werner
Troesken have all heard or read bits and pieces of the manuscript—and
some have read it all. Their reactions and advice have played an impor-
tant role in the development of the book’s final version. I have given
talks on Takahashi at the University of California, San Diego, Cam-
bridge University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Columbia Uni-
versity, Hong Kong University, Keio University, London School of
Economics, University of Michigan, Osaka Gakuin University, Osaka
University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh,
and Portland State University, and have benefited from the reactions,
often critical, of the various audiences. I want to thank the students in
three successive undergraduate writing seminars for history majors at
the University of Pittsburgh from 2004 through 2006, who read my
manuscript as part of their course work and gave me amazingly frank
critiques, considering the power I had over determining their grades.
Finally, I want to single out nine people to whom I am especially in-
debted: Nina Sadd, who not only edited my manuscript, but also re-
formatted it to meet the press’s requirements. William Hammell, my
editor at the Harvard Asia Center, and Julia Perkins, my copy editor,
have both made important contributions to the final version of the
book. Three civilians read all or part of the manuscript and commented
on it: Albert Rosenberg, Joan Rosenberg, and William Smethurst—and
their efforts rose far above the requirements of friendship and filial
piety. Mae Smethurst not only read the manuscript and provided her
usual editorial rigor, but also has had to live for twenty years with Taka-
hashi in the house; of course, at the same time, I have had to live with
Aristotle and Zeami. Finally, I want to thank two close friends, who
died as this book neared completion: Yasuba Yasukichi, professor in
the Faculty of Economics at Osaka University and then Osaka Gakuin
University, and Tamaki Norio, professor in the Faculty of Commerce
at Keio University. Both men helped to educate me in many, many
ways. Yasukichi, whom I first met in Baltimore in 1957, has in his own
inimitable way been an advisor, sounding board, and critic—we have
spent hours over the years talking about Japanese economic history,
and particularly the need for quantitative analysis of Japan’s economic
development. In his last article, published posthumously in 2005, he
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x Acknowledgments
called on quantitative historians to test my assertions about rural stan-
dards of living in pre-World War II Japan. I now have in Pittsburgh
Yasukichi’s set of the Hitotsubashi group’s Long Term Economic Statistics
of Japan. Norio, a newer friend, was my host for almost a decade at
Keio. We shared lunch and coffee two or three times a week during
my visits to Tokyo, and talked at great length about the importance
of qualitative as well as quantitative approaches to Japan’s economy.
He shared with me his knowledge of Meiji and Taishō financial history
and bibliography; a large part of his personal library is now in my study.
Norio also helped me in the onerous task of reading Takahashi’s hand-
written documents. I am deeply indebted to both men for their help
and friendship, and have dedicated the book to their memories.
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