During the Empire of Japan and up to 1945, Japan was dependent on imported foods and raw materials for industry. At the time, Japan had one of the largest merchant fleets in the world with a total of approximately 6 million tonnes of displacement before December 1941. Despite heavy naval losses during the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

, Japan was still left with 4,700,000 tonnes.

Trade

Despite popular perception, during the 1930s Japan was exporting low-cost items successfully. However, between the years of 1929 and 1938 foreign commerce dropped from 3.7% to 3.5%. Japan ran a trade deficit, selling a total of

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

12.85 and buying

15.25 per capita. This was in part brought on by the purchase of wartime materials. Japan's primary trading partners in order were: * United States *

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

* Wang Jingwei Government * Mengjiang * Occupied Chinese territories * India * United Kingdom * Dutch Indies Japan exported 32% of its total output to the United States, and purchased 21% of its foreign trade. Japan's imports were as follows: *32% - cotton *9% - wool *9% - iron *6% - petroleum *4% - machinery *3% - soybeans *2% - wheat Japan's exports were as follows: *19% - wool articles *15% - raw silk *15% - rayon *3% - machinery Japan's primary exports were raw silk, controlling 80% of the world's production, and tea, controlling 10%. Japan's total foreign trade was equivalent to Belgium, a country with less than 10% of Japan's population. In 1897, the local monetary unit, the yen, was valued on the gold standard at a base level of 24.5 British

Pence A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is th ...

, which permits the use in the figures of the

pound sterling Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...

or gold-backed US dollars. (1 Yen = 24.5 British Penny or 10.8 Yen = 1 British Guinea = 1.05 Pounds Sterling) During the worldwide depression (1931 to 1934), Japanese exterior commerce grew. The expansion of this trade was in part due to European difficulties in supplying their colonies, allowing Japan to expand into new markets. Before the war, crude silk represented one-third of exports and 10% of

processed silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from ...

. Other products for export were

rayon Rayon is a semi-synthetic fiber, made from natural sources of regenerated cellulose, such as wood and related agricultural products. It has the same molecular structure as cellulose. It is also called viscose. Many types and grades of viscose f ...

, cotton, processed silk and others. In 1937 exports were crude silk, cotton fabrics, and rayon. Japan was importing raw cotton, wool, and oil imported products.

Other exterior commerce statistics

Japan was the first Asiatic independent state to export manufactured objects (e.g., silks, fabrics) and the first to import machinery and raw materials. The metal-based manufacturing industry was not very active in 1918 exports, but porcelain, paper and matches were sold, and sugar and tea were exported from Formosa. In imports raw materials represented around 60%, as raw cotton, unfinished metals and machinery, and foodstuffs at 14%. For more numbers, see the following statistics from 1890 to 1927: In 1925, external trade was equivalent of 404 French francs per inhabitant (the nominal monetary value of the Yen at the time was 12.72 Frs., with exchange variations between 13.60 in 1918 to 10.46 during 1925.) In 1926, the general value of exports was 2,045 million Yen, the imports 2,377 million Yen. During 1927, numbers were slightly down at 1,992 million of Yen in sellings and 2,179 in buyings. Other Japanese statistics (1900 to 1925) in thousands of Yen (one Yen equalled 5 Spanish pesetas in 1925) The total of these exports in the same years: *1900: 600 *1905: 500 *1910: 700 *1915: 2,000 *1920: 2,200 *1925: 2,400

Chosen's exports

More than 90% of Chosen's exterior commerce was with Japan and Manchukuo. In 1939, Chosen was importing $300,000,000 worth of goods and exporting $250,000,000 worth of goods, a deficit which continued for years. The principal articles for export were: *Rice *Silk *Soybeans *

Wolfram Wolfram may refer to: * Wolfram (name) * Wolfram, an alternative name for the chemical element tungsten * Wolfram Research, a software company known for the symbolic computation program Mathematica ** Wolfram Language, the programming language use ...

(Tungsten) *Graphite *Gold *Chemical products The principal imports were: *Petroleum *Metallic products *Machinery and Trucks *Sugar *Rye *Maize More than 16,000,000 tonnes of merchant vessels entered the province in 1936 via

Fusan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

, the fourth largest port in the Japanese Empire. Japanese industry and commerce became focused on export and foreign sales, and the local markets unsatisfied because of low demand.

Formosa's exports: (1929 to 1933)

*Rice: 20% *Sugar: 55% *Tropical fruits: 5% *Camphor (processed or raw state): 2% *Oolong and other types of tea: 2% *Minerals (processed or raw state): 5%

Other foreign investments

Japanese companies had invested 18,560,000 Yen in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

(

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

and Borneo) and some 51,195,000 Yen in rubber plantations in the British

Straits Settlements The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Singapore for more than a century, it was originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Comp ...

(

British Malaya The term "British Malaya" (; ms, Tanah Melayu British) loosely describes a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the island of Singapore that were brought under British hegemony or control between the late 18th and the mid-20th century. U ...

) (260 km² in major production from 1927). Japanese capital investment in China to 1927 was 1900 million Yen. Apart from Manchuria, the Japanese interests were concentrated in the Yangtze Basin areas ( Shanghai, Hankow- Wuhan,

Kiangsi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north into hi ...

). Japanese banking interests financed 50% of the Chinese cotton industry sector.

Naval construction

In 1893 naval construction was in the range 177,000 to 1,528,000 tons. In 1913 this increased to 3,565,000 tons. In 1924 there were 237 new vessels of 500 tons and another 11 of 10,000 tonnes, continuing the growth to 4,140,000 tonnes in 1928. The Imperial Japanese Navy was the third largest in the world behind the British and American navies, and dominated the West Pacific area before the war. The first modern shipyard was founded in 1891. From this time naval construction rapidly advanced. Japanese vessels of more 100 tonnes represented a registered tonnage total of 5,007,000 tonnes of which 1,198,000 corresponded to the naval construction period of 1936 to 1938. Old vessels were decommissioned or disarmed, while the regular fleet was efficient and modern. In peacetime Japan constructed a lower annual figure of 500,000 tonnes of shipping. Japan still rivalled Norway for third place in the world merchant fleet. Its vessels were of lower quality. Almost 1,000,000 tonnes were of the modern type, but the larger part of the current fleet was antiquated, with only half-a-dozen vessels of tonnage over 10,000 tonnes.

References

{{JapanEmpireNavbox Empire of Japan Economic history of World War II Economic history of Japan

Jap ''Jap'' is an English abbreviation of the word "Japanese". Today, it is generally regarded as an ethnic slur. In the United States, some Japanese Americans have come to find the term very offensive, even when used as an abbreviation. Prior to t ...