Impact of the Zaibatsu on Japan's Political Economy: Pre and Post War Period

Abstract

Prewar Japanese economic policy, as a whole, cannot be understood without some knowledge of the enterprises that were being built up by the mighty business groups popularly known as the “Zaibatsu”. Zaibatsu played a vital part in the economic rise of Japan, and they had come to occupy a position in the Japanese economy for which there was no parallel elsewhere in modern times. Their importance was not limited to the economic sphere, for they had made their influence felt in politics.