ABSTRACT
THE legislators having earned their salaries and the Diet being formally closed, the Government was in hopes of having nine months peace in which to get on with its administrative duties; but hardly had the session ended when a storm broke of which reverberations were heard all over the world. The firm of Suzuki stopped payment. It was the “wonder firm” of the war, and had accumulated, legends which lasted only a little longer than its money. American magazines often published articles on “The Richest Woman in Japan”—sometimes “in the world”— with photographs of Mrs. Suzuki, a staid and comfortable widow lady, who directed countless enterprises of unthinkable wealth. But they never mentioned Mr. Kaneko, though the Japanese papers often mentioned Kaneko and forgot Mrs. Suzuki. The late Suzuki had left his widow a miscellaneous business including a steelworks that was almost moribund. He also left her his banto, or office manager, a little man of modest demeanour who dressed badly and shaved seldom in wealth and poverty alike; but Kaneko had vast ideas, though whether he was a Napoleon or a George Ponderevo was never certain. Suzuki’s increased enormously during the war, handling business of every kind, and secured a good deal of Government patronage. The older rival firms declared war, and stuck at nothing. They did not stick, for instance, at saying that the reason why the Bank of Formosa advanced unlimited credit to Suzuki’s was the friendship between Mrs. Suzuki and Count Goto, who founded the bank. After the war there was an armaments race, and Suzuki’s bought metals for the supply of the Government arsenals. The Washington Conference in 1922 called a halt to the armaments race, and the Government left Suzuki’s
holding the metals. Enemies thought that the time had come to strike and inspired articles in the Press declaring that the firm was about to crash. Then came the great earthquake of 1923: the Government gave orders to the Bank of Japan to advance money liberally; the Bank of Formosa unloaded on to the Bank of Japan the bills it held against Suzuki’s, and everybody breathed more freely for a space. In March 1927 the Bank of Japan told the Bank of Formosa that it would not hold these Suzuki bills any longer, especially as they did not arise out of the earthquake at all. Kaneko appealed to Mr. Kataoka, the Minister of Finance, pointing out that it was at his predecessor’s instance that his firm had incurred its liabilities. The Minister was obdurate and Kaneko retired defeated, not knowing that he had wrecked a Government.
