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...

　　 How did post-War newer democracies, whose governments faced both pressures from vested special interests and vo ters, achieve trade liberalization ? Exploiting the case of trade liberalization in 1960s Japan, this paper addresses this question. Because the benefits and costs of...

In the 1930s and 1940s, the Japanese coal industry experienced huge fluctuations in production and labor productivity. In this paper, I explore the micro-aspects of labor productivity change in the coal industry during World War II, using mine-level data, compiled from official statistics and...

This paper explores the flow of funds inside Mitsubishi Bank during the Second World War, focusing on the impacts of acquisition of Daihyaku Bank in 1943 and the Designated Financial Institution System in 1944. Acquisition of Daihyaku Bank substantially expanded the branch network of Mitsubishi...

This paper investigates the sequence of trade liberalization in postwar Japan and its determinants. As the Japanese government utilized the foreign exchange allocation system as a tool for the industrial policy, especially for protecting domestic industries, in the 1950s, trade liberalization...

In this paper, we explore the structure and implications of interbank networks in prewar Japan, focusing on director interlocking. We find that approximately half the banks had at least one connection with another bank through director interlocking, and that a bank that had connections with...

After WWI, the Japanese economy experienced a structural change characterized by the emergence of large firms and increased numbers of white-collar workers. This paper explores how the human capital of white-collar workers was formed, using micro personnel data from Mitsubishi zaibatsu (business...