著者

姜 克實

出版者

土地制度史学会(現 政治経済学・経済史学会)

雑誌

土地制度史学 (ISSN:04933567)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.43, no.3, pp.38-47, 2001-04-20 (Released:2017-12-30)

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Tanzan Ishibashi insisted on "the Principle of Little Japan", advocating the abandonment of colonies, and criticized imperialism from the Taisho era. This has some researchers to insist that "the Principle of Little Japan" on which Ishibashi insisted is a theory of diplomacy. In contrast, this paper agues that "the Principle of Little Japan" was a theory covering not only diplomacy but also economics. How would a "little Japan" live on after abandoning colonies? Ishibashi angned that Japan should "depend on human wisdom and labor", and not on territory and resources. This was an essential and original aspect of Ishibashi thinking. Ishibashi basic approach includes the "philosophy of controlling personal desires" that he leaded from his teacher Odo Tanaka, and the principle of pragmatism, which puts much value on the function of social life. Ishibashi added the Neo-liberalism of L.T. Hobhouse to this basic thinking and came to propose ideas of fair distribution and of social policy and welfare, aiming at the conquest of laissez-faire, from about 1915. In his early economic thought, Ishibashi gave particular stress to capitalism fair distribution, but after the post-World Warpanic and the Kanto Earthquake in 1923, he shifted his emphasis to the development of productivity. The aim of reforming capitalism was not changed, but, facing crises in the structure of capitalism, he put much more stress on productivity than on fair distribution of relief measures. Ishibashi came close to a Keynsian theory of national intervention and currency management from the latter half of the 1920's, and advocated positive financing by depending mainly on the issuance of deficit covering bonds in order to increase employment in the early 1930s. On the other hand he also divides of public debts into the public debt to productive (civilian demand) and unproductive (military demand), his argument in this respect differed from those of J.M. Keynes' and Korekiyo Takahashi, Japan's Minister of Finance at the fine. Keynes and Takahashi saw a role for military spending while Ishibashi clearly aimed at peace. In wartime, Ishibashi objected to the theory of Block Economy and resisted the theory of was as an aid to the militaristic economy, insisting rather on the reed to firmly maintain the world economy and free trade system. We should not forget that "the Principle of Little Japan" advocated by Ishibashi offered a basic for the revival of the Japan economy after World War. His is a realist approach, not affected by any theories. It was characteristic of Ishibashi that he selected a policy on the underlying principle of streng theiring the stability of social life.