Japanese Banking
A History, 1859–1959

This book, first published in 1995, provides a full account in English of the Japanese banking industry from 1859–1959.

Norio Tamaki (Author)

9780521022330, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 November 2005

312 pages, 1 map 10 tables
23 x 15.4 x 2.1 cm, 0.455 kg

"This book offers a useful overview of Japan's banking institutions as they evolved.... Drawn largely from Japanese sources, it provides material not readily accessible in other English-language literature. The author also does a good job of setting the development of Japanese into the larger context of Japan's modern history. A careful reader will find much in it about which to think." Elizabeth P. Tsunoda, The Historian

How did the Japanese achieve their unrivalled position in world banking? This book, first published in 1995, provides a full account in English of the banking industry in Japan for the century following the opening of the country to the outside world in 1859. Professor Tamaki begins by considering the period of experimentation during the Meiji Restoration which resulted in the adoption of the Gold Standard in 1891. He then offers a detailed examination of the highly profitable years up to the end of the First World War and of the subsequent crisis which was hastened by the earthquake that devastated Tokyo and Yokohama in 1923 and sealed by the financial collapse of 1927. New light is thrown on the extraordinary role played by the banking industry during the period of military expansionism which culminated with defeat in the Second World War. The book ends with an assessment of the post-war financial system which developed out of the Macarthur directives and the subsequent American 'democratisation' programme.

Preface
Genealogy of leading Japanese banks 1859–1959
Abbreviations
Part I. A Bankrupt Shogunate 1859–68: 1. Japanese merchant bankers: Ryogae
2. A bankrupt regime
3. Ryogae, struggling for survival?
4. The arrival of Western banking
Part II. The Meiji Restoration: Monetary Confusion and Banking Experiments, 1868–81: 5. The first banking experiment
6. The national bank system: American influence
7. The origins of ordinary banking: another bank mania
8. Search for stability: the last bank controversy
Part III. Matsukata, the Wizard of Japanese Banking 1881–97, the Yokohama Specie Bank (1880), and the Bank of Japan (1882): 9. The Bank of Japan, or Nichigin
10. The Yokohama Specie Bank or Shokin
11. Consolidation and expansion
12. The adoption of gold standard
Part IV. The Japanese on the London Money Market, 1897–1911: 13. The 'Siamese twins': Nichigin and Shokin
14. Special banking
15. Banking at the end of the Meiji era
16. Banking and the securities market
Part V. War: The Japanese Boom Years, 1911–19: 17. Bank of Japan money supply
18. The expansion of special banking
19. Ordinary and savings banks: the search for strength
20. Other financial sectors in the boom years
Part VI. Crisis and the Road to War, 1919–37: 21. Post war collapse, 1919–23
22. 1923 catastrophic earthquake, 1927 financial disaster, and the new Bank Act
23. Financing heavy industries
24. The challenge of militarism and a change of roles for Nichigin and Shokin
Part VII. Complete Commitment, Struggles, and Defeat, 1937–45: 25. War budgets and the mobilisation of national resources
26. Extraordinary banking business during the national emergency
27. Crisis, 1945
Part VIII. American 'Democratization' and the Search for Growth, 1945–59: 28. MacArthur's directives
29. Remaking the banking system: the Japanese vs. the Americans
30. Rise of governmental banking and the search for stability: the Japanese initiatives
31. The post-war system
32. An extraordinary century, 1859–1959
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: International economics [KCL]