The Japanese Economy During the Great Depression: The Emergence of Macroeconomic Policy in a Small and Open Economy, 1931-1936

Introduction: Takahashi Korekiyo, the Man Who Brought Japan Out of the Great Depression.- Japan’s Plunge into and Emergence from the Great Depression.- Policy Innovation in the Great Depression.- Sustainability of Public Debt under Stress.- Origins of the Economic Ideas of Takahashi Korekiyo.- Conclusion: Lessons for Today from Takahashi Korekiyo’s Policies.

Masato Shizume is a professor of economics at Waseda University. His research focuses on the history of money and credit and the emergence and developments of the modern society and state in Japan. He has published articles, books, and book chapters on the monetary history of Japan both in English and Japanese. His recent publications include The Emergence and Developments of Credit Money: Evidence from the Pre-modern Period to the Present, 2020 (editor, in Japanese); Strategic Central Bank Communication: Discourse Analysis of the Bank of Japan’s Monthly Report,＂ Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, vol. 100, 2019 (with Kohei Kawamura, Yōhei Kobashi, and Kōzō Ueda); Historical Evolution of Monetary Policy (Goals and Instruments) in Japan: From the Central Bank of an Emerging Economy to the Central Bank of a Mature Economy, Stefano Battilossi, Youssef Cassis, and Kazuhiko Yago, editors, Handbook of the History of Money and Currency, 2018; A History of the Bank of Japan, 1882-2016, Tor Jacobson, Daniel Waldenström, and Rodney Edvinsson, editors, Sveriges Riksbank 350 Years: A Central Bank in a World of Central Banks, 2018; Financial Crises and the Central Bank: Lessons from Japan during the 1920s, Isao Suto and Hugh Rockoff, editors, Coping with Financial Panics: Some Lessons from Financial History, 2018. His undergraduate degree is from Keio University and his Ph.D. is from Kobe University.