This paper aims to provide essential background information for understanding the business history of early-modern Japan, particularly financial dealings, and offer an overview of past research on the relevant topics. In Part II, I present the stylized facts on the socioeconomic structure of early-modern Japan and the market structure of Osaka—then the country’s central market. Part III shifts the discussion to the history of academic inquiries pertaining to financial dealings in early-modern Japan. To prevent the paper from exceeding its length constraints, I first explain the prevailing understanding among present-day scholars (especially elements that Japanese researchers have reached a consensus on) and then focus my survey of past research specifically on new endeavors that the latest research projects are tackling.

In this article, I summarize the history of research on private financing in early modern Japan. In particular, I focus on “house and grounds-collateralized financing” (kajichi kin’yū), which was the representative approach to getting financing in urban areas, and “farmland-collateralized financing” (shichichi kin’yū), which was the representative approach for obtaining financing in farm villages. “House and grounds-collateralized financing” entailed cash lending and borrowing with a home or estate serving as collateral, while “farmland-collateralized financing” entailed cash lending and borrowing farmlands (farm village real estate) serving as collateral. In early modern Japan, both were employed as relatively safe financial transactions; they have attracted the attention of scholars studying legal history and also those studying economic history. However, the dialogue between the legal historians and the economic historians has to date been inadequate. It would be safe to say that the research has accumulated in their separate fields. Accordingly, in this article, we explain the regional differences with regard to the legal system in early modern Japan as well as “superior vs. inferior” in terms of claim protections (saiken hogo). Based on a deepening of our understanding of claim protections with regard to house and grounds-collateralized financing and farmland-collateralized financing, we will consider the degree of impact that debt protections had on interest rates.

The purpose of this article is to introduce research on the histories of currency and finance in Japan during the final years of shogunate (i.e., the Bakumatsu years) and the dawn of the Meiji period that followed (1858–1871). The article focuses on three areas: (1) the structure of ledgers, (2) currency units of calculation and values, and (3) the realities of merchant family management. It introduces those texts that should be read when doing research on three processes: (1) that of how the “local” set of bookkeeping rules referred to as the washiki chōai method that had become entrenched in early modern Japan switched over to the Western-style double-entry bookkeeping method in the early Meiji period; (2) that of how the diversity of the issuers of currency and units of calculation in the early modern period came see a consolidation of issuers and units of calculation in the early Meiji period; and (3) that of how the major financiers such as those who would issue loans to feudal lords advanced into the banking business or fell into run in the early Meiji period. At the same time, it also explains the historical significance of joint venture called Yamahiroya-Chōbei (山廣屋長平) having been established before corporations based on the joint-stock company form had emerged in Japan.

This paper explores workplace-residence relationships at retail stores in interwar Tokyo (then known as Tokyo City) by examining the specific case of the Ginza-dōri shopping street. Through its discussion, the paper reaches five conclusions. First, the shift toward working and residing in separate locations (shokujū-bunri), instead of working and residing in the same place (shokujū-icchi), had begun prior to the Great Kantō Earthquake but underwent significant changes thereafter. Second, shokujū-bunri—including approaches where people made their dwellings in the suburbs—presented advantages from the standpoint of home life, given the poor living conditions, concerns about health and safety, and high house-rent levels in the area along Ginza-dōri. The third conclusion is that shokujū-bunri was also advantageous in terms of land and building use, as having fewer residents in workplaces gave businesses the space to expand their sales-floor areas and high sales per tsubo (a measure of area equivalent to roughly 3.3 m²) offset the high land prices at the time. On the other hand, the paper also finds that shokujū-icchi enabled stores to stay open for longer hours and had its own advantages on the employment side, evidenced by how employees apparently retained a stronger preference for live-in working arrangements than their store proprietors did. The fifth and final conclusion centers on conceptions of “family”: the “merchant family” ideal, which saw employees living in stores as a “fun,” “lively” arrangement, led many to opt for the shokujū-icchi approach.