Modernizing the financial system in Japan during the 19th century: National Banks in Japan in the Context of Free Banking

Masato Shizume and Masayoshi Tsurumi
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Masayoshi Tsurumi: Institute of Comparative Economic Studies, Hosei University

No 1607, Working Papers from Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics

Abstract: In this paper, we explore the role of competing concepts of the banking system in the process of modernizing the financial system in Japan. The country has a long history of its own version of private note issuance dating back to the early 17th century. In the late 19th century, the Japanese government considered two options for modernizing its financial system, national/free banking as in the United States, and central banking as in Europe. It first decided to adopt the former because the Japanese economy was decentralized and more closely resembled the economy of the United States than that of the European countries. However, the Japanese government customized the banking system for the Japanese situation. After some trial and error, the government turned to the latter option and established the central bank in 1882.

Keywords: the modern banking system; free banking; national banks; the Bank of Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2016-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-mon
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wap:wpaper:1607

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