Occupation, financial reporting and unintended consequences in post-World War Two Japan: the case of mining corporations 1946–1950

Making extensive use of official Holding Company Liquidation Commission (HCLC) documents possessed by the National Archives of Japan, this study examines accounting practices adopted by three major Japanese mining corporations in the process of their dissolution in the immediate post-war period from 1946 to 1950. The study finds that (1) conventional accounting practices adopted by the Zaibatsu mining companies were sufficient to allow the HCLC to dictate conglomerate dissolution policies; and (2) forecast balance sheets prepared by the companies following the ‘Instructions for the Preparation of Financial Statements of Manufacturing and Trading Companies’, issued by the General Headquarters (GHQ) in July 1947, after the HCLC decided to split them up, provided an important foundation for their financial consolidation in the immediate post-war period. With these findings, this study, unlike prior research, argues that the Instructions were used by the Zaibatsu mining corporations in an unexpected way to rebuild their capital structures and survive in the post-war period, rather than to dissolve themselves under the GHQ's occupation policy.