The purpose of this article is to examine why financial institutions for small businesses developed in the city of Osaka in the interwar period. In the period from the Showa financial crisis of 1927 to the great depression of 1929〜31, deposits and loans by ordinary banks decreased, but deposits and loans by savings banks, mujin [mutual financing] companies, and credit associations used by small businesses rapidly increased. The growth of these financial institutions was mainly supported by their characteristic ways of financing. Branches of Fudo Chokin Ginko [Fudo Savings Bank] and mujin companies made long-term and unsecured loans, although at rates of interest higher than those charged by ordinary banks. Credit associations made short-term loans without collateral, and discounted bills. Moreover, they provided funds for the wholesalers that played a principal role in the finances of small businesses. The diversity of users was also an important factor in the development of financial institutions specializing in small businesses. Even in the great depression, they were utilized not only by firms that needed funds to continue to trade, but also by businessmen who intended to expand, those who wanted to maintain accounts with ordinary banks, and those who sought more profitable ways of saving.

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This paper examines the process through which credit unions were founded by the Korean-Japanese minority, placing particular emphasis on the political and economic conditions that prescribed and enabled their establishment within the historical setting of the North-South conflict. Organized activity by Korean-Japanese political organizations such as Choren, the Federation of Korean-Japanese People, was instrumental in creating the first credit union in the period of reconstruction after World War II. In the ambiguous situation arising while the legal status of the Korean-Japanese was yet to be defined and the establishment of credit unions was not yet certain, organized action by the Korean-Japanese was an important driving force behind joint establishment of credit unions for the elimination of discrimination. However, while the effect of political divisions did not appear immediately, the north-south conflict gradually penetrated the credit union, resulting in the purge of those with differing political opinions. To service those Korean-Japanese who were excluded from the first, a second credit union, the Shogin, was ultimately established by the business community associated with South Korea. Thus, political and economic factors were compounded in the background of this nationwide rollout of the two credit unions. The establishment process of Shogin was not necessarily smooth. One problem was the lack of knowledge regarding financial institutions in the South Korean-Japanese community; another was that despite the will to establish the Shogin, there were not the financial resources to do so. A further problem was that the financial authorities regarded all Korean-Japanese customers as South Korean citizens, which for legal reasons resulted in the lengthy delay in its establishment. In such conditions, the establishment of Shogin was ultimately accomplished with support from ethnic-political institutions such as Mindan, the Federation of Korean-Japanese People, and financing from the South Korean government, which committed to the establishment of the credit union as political conflict with the north sharpened. In the end many small credit unions emerged prefecture by prefecture since they were prescribed for political as well as economic reasons. These credit unions had limited operational scope as financial institutions from the beginning, due to their funding scale. Future growth thus relied on population size and the economic viability of the Korean-Japanese community in the area covered by each union.

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