Denryoku Renmei and Denki Iinkai

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to compare the origin and function of Denryoku Renmei with those of Denki Iinkai, and to make clear the relation between the cartel control and the public regulation concerning the electric power industry in the first half of the 1930s. Denryoku Renmei (the League of Electric Power Companies) was the cartel organized by five big electric power companies, Tokyo Electric Light Co., Great Consolidated Electric Power Co., Toho Electric Power Co., Nippon Electric Power Co. and Ujigawa Electric Power Co., in April, 1932. Denki Iinkai (the committee on Electricity) was the government agency organized according to revised Electric Industry Law in December, 1932. The commonly accepted theory, which asserts that electric power capital was put under the control of Zaibatsu, is not adequate, because it neglects the independency of electric power capital. In this paper, the behavior of top managers of electric power companies-typified by Yasuzaemon Matsunaga who was the president of Toho Electric Power Co.-is chiefly examined. In the first half of the 1930s electric power capital not only promoted the cartel control but also accepted the public regulation in order to gain stable profits. Denryoku Renmei and Denki Iinkai formed an effectual system for plenty and low-priced electricity supply which was social request in those days. Representatives of Zaibatsu, Shigeaki Ikeda and Kenkichi Kagami, did not play always a decisive role in Denryoku Renmei and in Denki Iinkai.