Post-war reconstruction of the Japanese economy

In 1945, as the Second World War was drawing to a close, Japan's Foreign Ministry convened a special committee of economists and policymakers to take a hard look at the country's economic position and recommend a course of action for its reconstruction. The Committee's report, which was issued in September 1946 and served as a blueprint for government policies in the years of rebuilding that followed, is reprinted here in an English translation, with introductions by two noted economists that place it in context and underline its importance.

The report first surveys war damage and outlines the myriad problems left for Japan in the wake of its defeat: food and materials shortages, a devastated physical and industrial infrastructure, the pressure of increased population in both rural and urban areas, and the burden of reparations payments. It goes on to describe the global economic environment in which the Japanese economy would be operating and the special characteristics of the nation's social and economic structure that would affect its adjustment to a postwar world order.

The reconstruction of Japan's economy, as the volume's compiler Saburo Okita points out, was essentially a process of transition from a managed economy to a market economy. The story of this process, which began with the report in this volume, will be an instructive one for both historians and policymakers in countries undergoing the same transition today.