Financial Stabilization in Meiji Japan

Steven J. Ericson is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Dartmouth College. He is author of The Sound of the Whistle and co-editor of The Treaty of Portsmouth and Its Legacies. Follow him on X @ericson_steven.

• Introduction: Departures from Orthodoxy1. From "Ōkuma Finance" to "Matsukata Finance,"1873–18812. Orthodox Finance and "The Dictates of Practical Expediency": Influences on Matsukata3. Austerity and Expansion: The Matsukata Reform, 1881–18854. Spending in a Time of "Retrenchment": Industrial Policy and the Military5. Founding a Central Bank6. "Poor Peasant, Poor Country"? The Matsukata DeflationConclusion: The Matsukata Reform As "Expansionary Austerity"

This book is one of the most important contributions to understanding the history of financial modernization in Japan in recent scholarship.(H-Net) As a work of Japanese history, Ericson gives us the most complete study to date of Matsukata's policies. It will certainly become the standard reference... This is a first-rate work that should be required reading for historians and economists working on Japan...(Shashi: The Journal of Japanese Business and Company History) [T]his book is a must-read for students and scholars of modern Japanese financial history and a precious case study for contemporary economists in the fields of development and monetary policy. Its biggest contribution is to set a new stage for future study by evaluating existing works.(Journal of Japanese Studies) Ericson's thorough analysis of its content and context reveals Matsukata as, above all, a politician and statesman navigating his way through the interlocking worlds of late nineteenth-century Japanese and international financial politics, achieving his goals with considerable success and thereby placing Japan on a firmer footing to face the challenges of industrialization. [A] better guide [than] Ericson's clear, immaculately presented, and indeed relatively short text is hard to imagine.(Monumenta Nipponica)