2024 年 66 巻 1 号 p. 25-50
Although local-level neoliberalism has garnered attention in recent years, insufficient research has resulted in a lack of clarity regarding the history of neoliberalism in Japan. This study examines the relationship between Japan and the rise of neoliberalism during the Interwar Period (the 1920s and the 1930s). This study adopts a sociohistorical method, focusing on international human networks, which has been used extensively in recent neoliberal studies. It examines Jiyū tsūshō kyōkai (the Association for Liberty of Trading) that was a network of free trade organizations in interwar Japan and had an intellectual relationship with an international neoliberal network. The Association not only interacted with the international neoliberal network, but also essentially traced a similar ideological trajectory to its Western counterparts. Both idealized a unified world economy and engaged in the reduction of trade barriers at the end of the 1920s. During the 1930s, they became more active, focusing on the institutional construction that made the international economy more open. In contrast to this basic similarity, Japanese neoliberals have two features: (1) their discourse maintained a strong interest in national-level resources and population issues; and (2) at the end of the 1930s, they insisted that the expansion of the Empire of Japan was necessary to achieve an open world economy. This study supports the idea that the development of neoliberalism had already begun in interwar Japan as well as Western countries.