The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the Japanese coal industry during the 1930s, focusing on the impact of the Major Industries Control Law of 1931. During the Showa Depression, producers' mutual interests led to the creation of the Showa Coal Company, a joint nationwide marketing organization. Along with the Coal Mining Federation, a body to regulate output which had been established after the recession of 1920, the Company helped producers to keep control of output and prices. But the strategy was in direct conflict with the government's view that coal supplies had to satisfy the increasing demand at reasonable prices. In 1934, the coal industry became one of those regulated by the major Industries Control Law. The mein effects of this were two-fold. First, the Law, in contrast to the traditional view, did not work to regulate the "monopoly price". The so-called "standard price", a minimum price indexed to the price level, was in fact maintained at the pre-Law level of early 1934, and high enough to provide substantial profits. Secondly, the once rigid output ceilings for individual mines were allowed to vary with market conditions. Thus production was able to meet the growing demand for coal, especially from the military, and keep to "supply targets". From the mid-1930s, industrial policies aimed increasingly at securing a stable supply of strategic materials. The coal industry was a typical case in which such ideas were put into practice. It was the beginning of the war economy.
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