MITI and the Japanese miracle

⁴⁴

MITI planned to change that by dredging harbors, building factories at dockside, and locating intermediate processors next to final manufacturers. One of the most famous products of this policy is the Keiyo* industrial belt and petrochemical

kombinato

, which was built in Chiba prefecture on land entirely reclaimed from Tokyo Bay. The Kawasaki Steel Company alone, which in 1953 fired the first blast furnace of its new, integrated facility (pig iron to rolled steel; at the time, the world's most modern), received some 3 million square meters of free land from Chiba prefecture. Ichimada, the banks, and Kawasaki's biggest competitors (Yawata, Fuji, and Nippon Kokan*) all derided the Kawasaki effort at the time as beyond Japan's capabilities and needssomething MITI has never let them forget in view of its unexampled success.

⁴⁵

Despite MITI's own early successes with the Development Bank, the Foreign Capital Law, and the Rationalization Council and Law, Japan was still some remove from a true high-growth system. Throughout the 1950 to 1954 period economic fluctuations buffeted the country. These fluctuations were caused, first, by the Korean truce negotiations and truce and, second, by balance of payments problems, since

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TABLE

16

Japan's Business Cycle, 19501974

Popular name

Period

Duration

Doran * bumu* (Korean War boom)

6/506/51

13 months

Kyusen* hando* (Truce recession)

7/5110/51

4 months

Shohi* keiki (consumption boom)

11/511/54

27 months

Nijuku-nen* fukyo* (the 1954 recession)

2/5411/54

10 months

Jimmu keiki (boom unprecedented since the emperor Jimmu)

12/546/57

31 months

Nabezoko fukyo (bottom-of-the-pot

recession)

7/576/58

12 months

Iwato keiki (boom unprecedented since the time of the sun goddess Amaterasu)

7/5812/61

42 months

Sanjushichi-nen* fukyo (the 1962 recession)

1/6210/62

10 months

Kokyokan-naki* hanei (prosperity without a sense of boom)

11/6210/64

24 months

Yonju-nen* fukyo (the 1965 recession) (also called the Kozoteki fukyo, the structural recession)

11/6410/65

12 months

Izanagi keiki (boom unprecedented since the god Izanagi joined with Izanami to create the islands of Japan)

11/656/70

56 months

Yonjugo* yonjuroku-nen* fukyo (the 197071