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Postwar Private Consumption Patterns of Japanese Households: The Role of Consumer Durables

Author

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  • Atsushi Maki

Abstract

In Japan in the 1950s and 1960s the economic objectives for consumers, corporations and the government coincided. Consumers wanted to improve their standard of living, corporations tried to increase their productivity through modernisation and industrialisation and the government attempted to foster a new economic system to rebuild the devastated economy after the Second World War and to maintain employment security. The desire to purchase consumer durables for households was significant in stimulating development and the role of consumer durables was important in stimulating investment and the supply of financial capital through household savings. The government had to channel such savings to corporations in order to increase domestic supply and to satisfy the desire of households to purchase consumer durables to increase the standard of living.

Suggested Citation

  • Atsushi Maki, 1996. "Postwar Private Consumption Patterns of Japanese Households: The Role of Consumer Durables," Asia Pacific Economic Papers 262, Australia-Japan Research Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    • Handle: RePEc:csg:ajrcau:262
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    File URL: https://crawford.anu.edu.au/pdf/pep/pep-262.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Horioka, Charles Yuji, 1990. "Why is Japan's household saving rate so high? A literature survey," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 49-92, March.
    2. Horioka, Charles Yuji, 1988. "Saving for housing purchase in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 351-384, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Hertog, Ekaterina Prof. & Fukuda, Setsuya & Matsukura, Rikiya & Nagase, Nobuko & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2022. "The future of unpaid work: Estimating the effects of automation on time spent on housework and care work in Japan and the UK," SocArXiv swe7n_v1, Center for Open Science.
    2. Vili Lehdonvirta & Lulu P Shi & Ekaterina Hertog & Nobuko Nagase & Yuji Ohta, 2023. "The future(s) of unpaid work: How susceptible do experts from different backgrounds think the domestic sphere is to automation?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(2), pages 1-16, February.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis

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