The World Economic Crisis and Japanese Capitalism
The current world economic crisis and its impact on Japanese capitalism contains many paradoxes. After the historical conditions of continuous growth under US economic hegemony broke down, generating a global economic crisis from the beginning of the 1970
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The World Economic Crisis and Japanese Capitalism Makoto Itoh Professor of Economics University ofTokyo
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-0-333-37283-8 ISBN 978-1-349-21084-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-21084-8
© Makoto Itoh, 1990 All rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, NewYork,N.Y.1001O First published in the Uni ted States of America in 1990 ISBN 978-0-312-03148-0 cloth ISBN 978-0-312-03149-7 paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Itoh, Makoto, 1936The world economic crisis and Japanese capitalismlMakoto Itoh. p. cm. Bibliography: p Includes index. ISBN 978-0-312-03148-0: $45.00 - ISBN 978-0-312-03149-7 (pbk.): $14.95 1. Economic history-1971- 2. Japan-Economic conditions-1945I. Tide HC59.I849 1990 337.52-dc20 89-34865 CIP
Contents List o[ Tab/es
viii
List o[ Figures
ix
Pre[ace
xi
Editor's Note
xv
PART 1
TUE CAPIT ALIST WORLD ECONOMY IN CRISIS
1 The Current Global Crisis and the Working of Capitalism
2
4
1.1
The Great World Depression
4
1.2
The Revival of the Workings of Capitalism
9
1.3
The Fundamental Workings of a Capitalist Economy
15
1.4
Towards More Concrete Analyses
22
The End of Sustained Growth
27
2.1
The Framework of the Postwar Boom The Economic Hegemony of the USA and Her Dollar Expenditures A Long Wave of Technological Innovation Favourable Terms of Trade with Developing Countries The Availability of Wage-Workers
27
The Development of Overaccumulation The Stagnating Tendency of US Capitalism and Uneven Development The Acceleration of Inflation and Speculative Trading The Profit Squeeze due to Overaccumulation
45
2.2
28 32 34 36
45 48 50
3 The Dynamic Process of the Great Depression
60
3.1
The Inflationary Crisis, 1973-75
60
3.2
The First Recovery, 1976-79
68
3.3
The Second Downswing, 1979-83
77
3.4
The Second Unstable Recovery, 1983-87
83
v
Contents
vi 4
The 'Information Revolution' in the Current Depression 4.1
What is the 'Information Revolution'?
4.2
The Capitalist Structure of the Flow of Information
100
4.3
Consumers and the 'Information Revolution'
102
4.4
The Increased Efficiency of Capitalist Transactions
105
4.5
The Worsening Position of the Developing Countries
108
4.6
In the Workplace
110
5 The Current Depression as an Historical Crisis
115
The Persistent Difficulty of Capital Accumulation
115
5.2
The Direction of Restructuring A Shift from Heavier to Lighter Industrial Development The Weakened Position of Workers The Economic Role of the State
123 124 125 127
5.3
The Remaining Problems
129
JAPANESE CAPITALlSM IN CRISIS
Rapid Economic Growth
