Policy-Based Finance: The Experience of Postwar Japan

摘要

The report examines the activities of policy-based finance in post-WWII Japan. Itfocuses primarily on the activities of the Japan Development Bank (JDB), which, as the primary institution in charge of industrial finance, played a large role in bringing about high economic growth. The report examines primarily the period from the end of WWII in 1945 to the mid-1960s, when Japan became an advanced industrialized country. Events after that time are discussed as necessary. Chapter One presents the history, characteristics, and structural framework of fiscal investments and loans, which serve as the systematic support for the activities of policy-based financial institutions such as JDB. Chapter Two outlines industrial policy and the economic plans that supported implementing this policy. Chapter Three surveys approximately twenty years of the macro-environment of fiscal and monetary policies after the end of WWII. Chapter Four provides a period-by-period account of the postwar activities of policy-based finance (using JDB as an example). Chapter Five uses examples from several industries to describe the position of and role played by policy-based finance in the industrial policies of each industry. Chapter Six touches on the accounts given in Chapters One through Five, focusing on the characteristics of Japan's policy-based finance system in the postwar period.