著者

須江 國雄

出版者

日本大学

雑誌

紀要 (ISSN:03859983)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.29, pp.289-308, 2000-03-31

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Many of the studies on Japan's heavy and chemical industries in the 1920s have cast these industries in a negative light and underestimated them. But while examination of empirical data indicates their regression and stagnation in the first half of the 1920s, the latter half of the decade was different. Though some variation exists between industries, steady development was visible in the second half of the 1920s, with the exception of 1928. These years were a period of renewed progress for the full spectrum of the heavy and chemical industries, although growth was primarily in the chemical and electric power businesses and rail service extending from city centers into outlying neighborhoods. As of 1929, 35.8% of Japan's manufacturing industries (metals, machinery, and chemicals) had become heavy and chemical industries. Supporting this evolution was the move among zaibatsu entities into heavy and chemical industry activities during the First World War. Much of this growth stemmed particularly from pathbreaking inroads into newly emerging heavy and chemical industries in the 1920s by four large zaibatsu that had grown larger because of a reshuffling in their ranks and by a new wave of business combines. By 1920 the four zaibatsu had adopted combine-like structures and reconfigured their operations to adapt to an expansion of scale. By making subsidiaries into joint-stock corporations, these zaibatsu also structured themselves to have assets for developing heavy and chemical industry operations. On top of this, as was illustrated by the liquidation of the business conglomerate Suzuki Shoten, zaibatsu pursued two routes to expansion: increasing the scale of their operations and making a full-fledged move into heavy and chemical industries. Enlargement of their operations involved the concentration of capital and the development of clusters through absorbing and blending the business resources-people, things, and money-of bankrupt zaibatsu from the Taisho period (1912-26) and mid-scale zaibatsu. The other route, entry into heavy and chemical industries, entailed forging alliances with foreign corporations and redirecting operations away from a traditional focus on light-industrial sectors.