1990 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The Fall of Japanese War Economy-About the Heavy Industry
| Project/Area Number |
63530045
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Research Field |
Economic history
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Ritsumeikan University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
NAGASHIMA Osamu Ritsumeikan University, the Department of Business Administration, Professor, 経営学部, 教授 (60121612)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
1988 – 1990
|
| Keywords | War economy / Heavy industry / Iron and steel industry / Aluminium industry |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
I have collected the documents about the heavy industry and that firms in Japan and tried to make clear that situation under World War II. I have arranged the documents about the iron and steel, aluminium, automobile, ship building and electric equipment industry.
First of all, I studied the technology option of Nippon Kokan (Japan Steel Tube) company, typical private steel maker and the special steel industry, Nippon Kokan which had been a large steel maker holding open-hearth furnaces built the first blast furnace in 1936 and then started to produce steel by Thomas converter due to reducing the consumption of scrap iron. Thomas process could produce much steel under the condition of the limited supply of scrap iron during war. Besides the experience of steel production by Thomas process was useful for the operation of LD converter (oxygen top-blown c onverter) which contributed to the development of Japanese steel industry after World War II.
The special steel industry, a direct material of weapons, rapidly grew due to the subsidies of sales material supply and fund raising as the demand depended on munitions. But the production of special steel decreased because of the supply reduction of materials and workers.
Although the aluminium industry of Japan started by domestic materials and home made technology, it failed because of high cost and poor quality of aluminium. But that process was useful for the operation of Bayer process by which aluminium was made from imported bauxite.
|
