Japan's Economic Planning and Mobilization in Wartime, 1930s–1940s

The Competence of the State

Yoshiro Miwa

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781107026506
• eBook ISBN: 9781316121214
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: International Economics
• Index: Economics

Although most economists maintain a mistrust of a government's goals when it intervenes in an economy, many continue to trust its actual ability. They retain, in other words, a faith in state competence. For this faith, they adduce no evidence. Sharing little skepticism about the government's ability, they continue to expect the best of governmental intervention. To study government competence in World War II Japan offers an intriguing laboratory. In this book, Yoshiro Miwa shows that the Japanese government did not conduct requisite planning for the war by any means. It made its choices on an ad hoc basis and the war itself quickly became a dead end. That the government planned for the war incompetently casts doubts on the accounts of Japanese government leadership more generally.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Table of contents
• Preface
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part I The Reality of Systematic War Preparations, War Mobilization, and Economic Control
• Part II Materials Mobilization Plans, Production Capacity Expansion Plans, and Economic Control
• Part III The Navy Air Force: A Study of a Central Japanese Player
• Conclusion
• References
• Index