MITI and the Japanese miracle

Page 116

Four

Economic General Staff

During the period that Yoshino and his colleagues were discovering rationalization and inching their way toward industrial policy, a different group of Japanese officials was taking up parallel questions. They were military officers and civilian bureaucrats working in military or cabinet-level agencies. Their concerns centered on Japan's preparedness for war, particularly since Japan had not experienced the total mobilization during 191418 that had so deeply influenced the general staffs of the Europeans. They were also concerned about the severe economic constraints that had appeared during Japan's last major war (with Russia during 19045), the economic mobilization and growing industrial strength of the country's potential enemies (particularly Soviet Russia), and the emergence of problems in their planning for national security as it concerned primary resources (particularly petroleum, but including other materials necessary for modern armaments).

These men were coming to believe that Japan needed an industrial policy in order to ensure its military survival, not just to overcome the depression. At an absolute minimum they wanted an "economic general staff" (

keizai

sanbo

*

honbu

) that would provide guidance for the economy from the point of view of Japan's military needs and industrial and resource deficiencies. During the 1930's this stream of inspiration for industrial policy flowed into and merged with the civilian MCI stream, and both were transformed in the process.

The Japanese military's first thoughts about mobilizing the whole private economy for war came during World War I. On April 17, 1918, based on its understanding of Germany's mobilization effort and on the actions of the United States after entering the war, the govern-