Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

ECONOMIC STABILIZATION BOARD • 81
The United States was highly critical of and annoyed by Mahathir’s
argument. It believed that if the EAEG flourished, it might be
possible to build a strong economic bloc in East Asia, led by an economically
powerful Japan, that would serve as an alternative core of
world economic growth. Japan expressed interest in Mahathir’s proposal,
but faced with strong pressure from Washington, it decided to
reject his ideas, instead opting to turn the EAEG concept into a subsidiary
organization of the APEC.
“EASTERN ETHICS, WESTERN SCIENCE.” A political slogan first
articulated by Shozan Sakuma in the 1850s as a dualistic approach to
dealing with Japan’s internal and external problems. “Eastern ethics”
meant a re-emphasis on Confucian values while “Western science”
meant the study and adoption of science, technology, and organizational
structures that developed in several Western countries since the Industrial
Revolution. By the 1880s, this phrase was transformed into the
more nationalistic call for “Japanese spirit, Western technology”. See
also CIVILIZATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT; FUKUZAWA, YU-
KICHI; IWAKURA MISSION; MEIJI ERA; MEIJI RESTORATION.
ECONOMIC STABILIZATION BOARD (ESB). The Economic Stabilization
Board was responsible for the overall economic planning
and management in occupied Japan. The Board was set up for a temporary
period in August 1946 because it was necessary to have an organization
that would coordinate the operations of several ministries
in a strong and integrated fashion in order to overcome the economic
crisis immediately after World War II. The ESB was the core institution
for promoting the Priority Production System in order to
contain inflation and to promote production.
The Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) was
pleased with the achievements of the ESB and, in March 1947, SCAP
asked the Japanese government to expand its function and allow it to
take more powerful actions in economic and financial control. In July
1947, an economic emergency measure was approved at a cabinet
meeting based on which the ESB assumed primary responsibility for
planning concrete economic policies. Also in July 1947, the ESB
compiled the first Economic Survey of Japan. In 1948, the ESB analyzed
the possible impact of setting a single foreign exchange rate.