In 1939, the Second Sino-Japanese War was still raging, having lasted much longer than the Japanese Army and Government had expected. As a result, the demand-supply balance of food provisions was getting worse, not only in Japan but in the Yen block which included Manchuria and north China. This was not only the result of severe drought which visited Korea and south-west Japan in 1939, as many scholars have pointed out, but also the result of many factors brought on by the limited amounts of food imported from outside the Yen block.
This paper analyzes the situation of the demand-supply balance of food, namely rice, wheat, and other cereals, within the Yen block in 1939, and shows that the food shortage problem within the Yen block became most critical for Japanese war policy-makers. This paper also examines the policy proposed by the Research Organization for Agricultural Policies in Japan and Manchuria （Nichi-Man Nousei Kenkyukai） set up in 1939, and shows that the main part of the proposal was for the rapid increase of land reclamation for food production in Manchuria and also the rapid increase of Japanese immigration, not to relieve pressure on Japanese rural economy but to increase food production in Manchuria.
