A Study on the Administration of Public Works in the Early Term of the SHOWA Era

In Relation to Emergency Relief Program and Public Works Council

Abstract

The October 1929 stock-market crash on Wall Street, New York, precipitated a global economic depression (Great Depression), throwing the economy and people of Japan into a panic. In Japan, Korekiyo TAKAHASHI, on his appointment as the Financial Minister in December 1931, initiated reflationary measures through a program for aggressive public spending (Emergency Relief Program). The centerpiece of the program was a series of public works projects carriedout from 1932 to 1934. In those projects, the Ministry of Home Affairs played a leading role, along with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Although they were organized as emergency measures, those public works projects had agreat impact on the subsequent system for the execution of projects. This paper discusses the contents and purpose of the Emergency Relief Program and the executed system for the public works projects of river, highway and port development, which were then under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Public Works, Ministry of Home Affairs.