Monetary policy and central banking in contemporary Japan

THIS study provided the basis for a series of three public lectures under the same title delivered at the University of Bombay in March 1962. The major portion of the research embodied herein was carried out in Japan between July 1957 and August 1958. and was submitted to the University of Michigan in 1960 in an earlier and slightly different form as my doctoral dissertation.
It is inevitable that any book on contemporary institutions and policy issues becomes somewhat dated rather quickly. While there have been some changes and developments in the Japanese economy since this study was originally prepared, there have been none which invalidated the analysis and conclusions I had reached. Nevertheless, in order to support with more ample and later data the conclusions I have drawn, I have brought up to date (within limitations of availability of materials) the major and crucial areas of the study, notably Chapter IV. Chapter III. I have left relatively untouched, since it contains descriptive material readily available; although the role of non-bank financial institu tions, especially the stock market, has grown more rapidly than I had anticipated, this has been a matter of degree rather than of kind. I suspect, for example, that the provision of corporate funds by new stock issue will be considerably less significant in 1962 than in the 1961 boom.
As is indicated in the text, Japan is once again in the midst of a period of monetary restraint, begun in the fall of 1961 because of the worsening balance of payments crisis. Because it is premature to do so, relatively little analysis has been devoted to the effectiveness of the present tight money policy.