Takahashi Korekiyo, the Man Who Brought Japan Out of the Great Depression

In this book, I revisit the achievements of Takahashi Korekiyo, a finance minister of Japan whose innovative macroeconomic policy brought Japan out of the global Great Depression in the 1930s. To this end, I review the Japanese economy in this period with data and chronology, explore the origins, intentions, and the consequences of Takahashi’s policy with econometric and archival analyses, and discuss lessons from this policy that can be applied today. In this introductory chapter, I go through the Japanese economy with reference to Takahashi’s policy and show the goals and the structure of this book.