Development of the Material Mobilization Plan in a bird eye view: Composition and change of the fundamental plan for managing Japanʼs war economy

This paper quantitatively investigates the development of the Materials Mobilization Plan, an allocation system for individual commodities, implemented during the Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War. Using price data, we converted the plan in physical units into monetary values to facilitate a quantitative overview of their scale and evolution. The Materials Mobilization Plan was a large-scale program that accounted for approximately 50 percent of Japanʼs total supply of goods, prior to 1944, when the scale of the plan was substantially contracted. Through this plan, the government and military authorities sought to mobilize vast quantities of resources for the war effort while maintaining a minimum standard of civilian living. Although changing international circumstances and the course of the war reduced Japanʼs import capacity and maritime shipping capacity—both regarded as the critical common constraints, the real value of supplies allocated through the Materials Mobilization Plan increased substantially in 1940 and thereafter remained at roughly the same level until 1943. The primary source of supply under the plan was domestic production. The share of domestic production in total planned supply remained just under 80 percent until fiscal year 1940 and, after normal international trade had virtually ceased in 1941, rose to around 90 percent, except in fiscal year 1942, when inventories were heavily drawn down. With respect to the allocation side, the share of supplies distributed to civilian demand, which had been approximately 85 percent up to fiscal year 1940, and declined after 1941. Nevertheless, it remained in the 70 percent range until 1943.