Japan's rise from the ashes of defeat in the Second World War to its position now as one of the world's foremost economies has long been recognized as one of the most startling turnarounds of the 20th Century. With economic reform again at the top of the global agenda with the fall of the Soviet...

We explore how changes in ownership and managerial control affect the productivity and profitability of producers. Using detailed operational, financial, management, and ownership data from the Japanese cotton spinning industry at the turn of the last century, we find a more nuanced picture than...

The Japanese aircraft industry, which operated on a very small scale before World War II, became Japan's largest manufacturing industry by the end of the war. In this paper, we explore the causes of the growth of the aircraft industry during this time by focusing on the No. 5 Works of Mitsubishi...

　　 In 1932, the Kwantung Army occupied Manchuria, the northeast part of China, and founded a puppet state, Manchukuo. The Kwantung Army and the Manchukuo government intended to develop heavy and chemical industries as well as munitions industries there, but they did not have a...

　　 During the World War II, Japan occupied a large part of East and South East Asia, called "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" (Daitoa Kyoei Ken). This paper overviews what the Japanese military authorities and the government did to develop the occupied areas in the 1930s and...