ABSTRACT
Despite Washington’s success in redefining the objectives of US economic policy in Japan, American efforts to reform Japanese finance did not cease in 1949. Although many commentators have maintained that Occupation reformism was snuffed out by Stateside conservatism, in fact, the last years of SCAP’s tenure saw a renewed commitment to the ‘Americanisation’ of Japan’s banking system. This final reform initiative, pursued under the direction of Joseph Dodge, differed in basic approach from the previous efforts of the Antitrust and Finance Divisions, however. Whereas the earlier, unrealised proposals treated the financial sector as an essentially independent entity, detached from the greater structure and functions of the Japanese economy, Dodge’s programme aimed at merging financial reform into overall economic policy. Thus, rather than being abandoned under the narrow ‘reverse course’ agenda, banking reform was reinterpreted and eventually integrated into the Occupation’s final push for economic reconstruction, self-sufficiency and stabilisation.
