Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

The claim was that China and Southeast Asian countries would be liberated from the control of Western imperialist countries, and that a wide-area economic sphere of coexistence and co-prosperity would be created with Japan at the helm. This slogan was put forward during the Pacific War to rationalize Japan's war of aggression against Asia. It is said to have been first used by Matsuoka Yosuke, Minister of Foreign Affairs during the second Konoe Fumimaro cabinet just before the outbreak of the Pacific War, but the idea of ​​creating a wide-area economic sphere of coexistence and co-prosperity in East Asia with Japan at the helm has been advocated for a long time. "Japan-Manchuria Oneness" during the Manchurian Incident was renamed "New East Asian Order" during the Sino-Japanese War, and by the early 1940s, when Southeast Asian countries were targets of aggression, the "Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere" was advocated. However, this slogan faded in importance as Japan's defeat in the Pacific War became apparent, supplies from Japan were cut off, and instead other countries began forcibly seizing materials from Japan. The "Co-prosperity Sphere" was transformed into the "Co-poverty Sphere."

[Hideo Kobayashi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国や東南アジア諸国を欧米帝国主義国の支配から解放し、日本を盟主に共存共栄の広域経済圏をつくりあげるという主張。太平洋戦争期に日本の対アジア侵略戦争を合理化するために唱えられたスローガンである。太平洋戦争勃発(ぼっぱつ)直前の第二次近衛文麿(このえふみまろ)内閣時の外務大臣松岡洋右(ようすけ)が最初に使ったことばだといわれるが、日本を盟主に東アジアに共存共栄の広域経済圏をつくりあげるという発想は古くから主張されていた。満州事変期の「日満一体」は、日中戦争期には「東亜新秩序」とその名を変え、東南アジア諸国を侵略対象とする1940年代初頭には「大東亜共栄圏」が主張されるに至った。しかし、このスローガンも、太平洋戦争が日本の敗色濃厚になり、日本からの物資供給がとだえ、逆に諸国からの日本への物資収奪が強行されるなかで色あせ、「共栄圏」は「共貧圏」へとその姿を変えていったのである。

［小林英夫］

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