ABSTRACT
Singapore was under Japanese rule for three and a half years from February 1942 to August 1945. However, as already noted in the Introduction, Japanese economic activities during the period have been little studied by scholars. It is true that the occupation period was comparatively short with a limited achievement in the economic field, while in addition relevant source materials are not easy to obtain. Nevertheless, one cannot possibly miss out the period simply on the pretext of a dire lack of source materials. This is not only because it constitutes an important part of the twentieth-century economic history of Singapore/Southeast Asia, but also because there is a possibility that Japanese economic policy and activities of Japanese firms then may have had a considerable impact on the economic development of Singapore in the post-war period.
