Micro-Performance During Postwar Japan’s High-Growth Era

The aim of this book is to analyze Japan's high-growth economy, in particular to clarify the kinds of changes in people’s lives that were generated by high growth. The present volume focuses not on the macro-economic mechanisms that expanded the scale of the economy, but on the micro-economic changes that were effected in everyday life. The emergence of a mass consumption society as a result of economic growth suggests that people's lifestyles and consumer behavior changed in various ways.

The first chapter focuses on the apparel industry's expanding market as it corresponded to changes in consumer behavior. Even as consumer life became more comfortable and abundant, consumers were becoming uneasy about the environmental deterioration associated with high growth. The second chapter examines how the Japanese government addressed emissions regulations while drawing on the lessons of America's experience with the same issue.

The change in industrial structure brought aboutby economic growth inevitably resulted in the decline of other industries. Chief among these was the coal-mining industry, which, with the onset of a full-scale energy revolution, lost its role as energy supplier owing to the import of cheap crude oil. The third chapter discusses the government's industrial policies as they addressed the coal industry's adjustment in the high-growth era, concluding that they reduced such problems as stagnation, unemployment, and local industrial decline. The adjustments in employment practices contributed positively to the gradual shift of labor from declining industries to growth industries. The fourth chapter investigates changes in labor management in the steel industry, which was one of the high-growth era's leading industries. This publication will serve as a valuable resource for those who are interested not only in the post-war history in Japan but also in high growth economies in recent East Asia.

Part I Micro-Performance During Postwar Japan’s High-Growth Era.- 1 The Japanese Apparel Industry and Consumer Society from 1950 to the 1970s (Susumu Ishii).- 2 The Legislative Process of Automobile Exhaust Emissions Control in Japan—The 1966 Regulation and the Role of the Ministry of Transport (Akira Itagaki).- 3 Adjustment Policies in the Japanese Coal Mining Industry during the Period of High Economic Growth – Production Volume Maintenance and Adjustments in Employment(Jin Sung Chung).- 4 The Relationship between Labor Management Reform and Inter-Company Relations at the Industry Level: a Case Study of the Japanese Steel Industry(Hiroshi Sugiyama).- Part II Book Reviews.- 5 Review of Numagami Tsuyoshi, Ekisyo Display no Gijyutsu Kakushin-shi (The History of Technological Innovation in Liquid Crystal Displays)(Juroh Hashimoto).- 6 Review of Woo Jong-Won, “Mibun no Torihiki” to Nihon no Koyo Kanko (“Transactions over Status” and Japan's Employment Practices)(Hiroshi Ichihara).- 7 Review of Junko Watanabe, Sangyo Hatten, Suitai no Keizai-shi—“10-dai bo” no Keisei to Sangyo Chousei (The Economic History of Industrial Development and Decline: the Formation and Industrial Readjustment of the Cotton Industry's “Big 10”) (Kyohei Hirano).- 8 Review of Juroh Hashimoto, Sengo Nihon Keizai no Seichou Kouzou: Kigyo System to Sangyo Seisaku no Bunseki (The Structure of Postwar Japan's Economic Growth: an Analysis of Enterprise Systems and Industrial Policy )(Seiichiro Yonekura).- Index.