Energy and economic policy in postwar Japan, 1945-1960

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6980371

Hein, L E

This history of the three main Japanese energy industries - coal, electric power, and petroleum - explores the dynamics of economic development and policy in postwar Japan. The immediate postwar policy debate over economic reconstruction involved the coal and electric power industry unions as well as organized business and government bureaucrats. Although union plans, which featured state control of industry and labor participation in management, were not adopted, they did raise broad questions of social justice. Union strength meant that Japan had to find a high-wage economic strategy. This labor goal was reflected in the three most important economic plans of the period: the Priority Production Policy of late 1946, the Industrial Rationalization Plan of 1949, and the 1960 Income Doubling Plan. All three plans incorporated both management and labor ideas (and bureaucratic ones). They protected managerial control of firms, but also institutionalized planning and a large role for the state. They offered a rising standard of living to workers and improvement of status through technology. Luck and international developments outside of Japanese control also were crucial to Japan's economic performance. Domestically, some of the most beneficial results of rationalization policy were unanticipated, as in the electric power and oil refining industries.

• Research Organization: Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6980371
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290200 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Economics & Sociology
293000* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Policy
Legislation
& Regulation
ASIA
COAL INDUSTRY
ECONOMIC POLICY
ELECTRIC POWER
ENERGY POLICY
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
INDUSTRY
JAPAN
LABOR
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
PLANNING
POWER