Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Genealogy of leading Japanese banks, 1859–1959
- List of abbreviations
- Map
- Part I A bankrupt Shogunate, 1859–1868
- Part II The Meiji Restoration: monetary confusion and banking experiments, 1868–1881
- Part III Matsukata, the wizard of Japanese banking, 1881–1897; the Yokohama Specie Bank (1880) and the Bank of Japan (1882)
- Part IV The Japanese on the London money market, 1897–1911
- Part V War, the Japanese boom years, 1911–1919
- Part VI Crisis and the road to war, 1919–1937
- Part VII Complete commitment, struggle and defeat, 1937–1945
- Part VIII American ‘democratisation’ and the search for growth, 1945–1959
- Historical background
- 28 MacArthur's directives, 1945–1948
- 29 Remaking the banking system: the Japanese versus the Americans, 1946–1952
- 30 The rise of governmental banking and the search for stability: Japanese initiatives, 1949–1958
- 31 The post-war system, 1946–1959
- An extraordinary century, 1859–1959
- Appendices
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
29 - Remaking the banking system: the Japanese versus the Americans, 1946–1952
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Genealogy of leading Japanese banks, 1859–1959
- List of abbreviations
- Map
- Part I A bankrupt Shogunate, 1859–1868
- Part II The Meiji Restoration: monetary confusion and banking experiments, 1868–1881
- Part III Matsukata, the wizard of Japanese banking, 1881–1897; the Yokohama Specie Bank (1880) and the Bank of Japan (1882)
- Part IV The Japanese on the London money market, 1897–1911
- Part V War, the Japanese boom years, 1911–1919
- Part VI Crisis and the road to war, 1919–1937
- Part VII Complete commitment, struggle and defeat, 1937–1945
- Part VIII American ‘democratisation’ and the search for growth, 1945–1959
- Historical background
- 28 MacArthur's directives, 1945–1948
- 29 Remaking the banking system: the Japanese versus the Americans, 1946–1952
- 30 The rise of governmental banking and the search for stability: Japanese initiatives, 1949–1958
- 31 The post-war system, 1946–1959
- An extraordinary century, 1859–1959
- Appendices
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Towards the end of 1945, after the American operations to clear the war machinery and tackle the grave situation that faced the banks had begun, the Finance Ministry started to work out reconstruction plans. In October 1945, a Preparatory Committee for Revisions of the Bank of Japan Act was appointed, and in December that year it produced a report for the Ministry of Finance. The outgoing Preparatory Committee was immediately succeeded in December 1945 by a Commission on the Financial System, a post-war version of the 1926 Commission and the first of those Commissions which later became an authoritative counselling organ for the Finance Ministry whenever crucial questions arose. This first post-war Commission promptly drafted a report on the overall plan for remaking the Japanese banking system, including the revisions in the Bank of Japan Act, based upon one prepared earlier by the Preparatory Committee.
The report included a plan for a ‘Finance Agency’. According to this, the Agency, headed by the Finance Minister assisted by the Bank of Japan governor and the chief of the finance department of the Ministry, was supposed to ensure the supervision of management of national funds and adjustment of interests between industry and finance. The Agency would, according to the plan, be placed in the Ministry of Finance, but the secretarial office would be installed in the Bank of Japan. The ‘Finance Agency’ was to become a focus of Japanese banking as will shortly be disclosed.
The Finance Ministry appointed the second Commission on the Financial System in December 1946 to work out a more detailed plan for the future.
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- Information
- Japanese BankingA History, 1859–1959, pp. 193 - 197Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995