Takahashi Finance

Takahashi Korekiyo served as finance minister in seven cabinets, of which the fiscal management during the cabinets of Inukai Tsuyoshi, Saito Makoto and Okada Keisuke, that is, from December 1931 to February 1936, is generally referred to as the Takahashi Finance. Following the collapse of the previous Inoue Finance's lifting of the gold embargo and austerity measures caused by the Great Depression, Takahashi, the finance minister of the Inukai Cabinet, was tasked with two tasks: raising funds for the Manchurian Incident and taking measures against the depression. On December 13, 1956, the day he became Minister of Finance, Takahashi reinstated a ban on gold exports, abolished the gold standard and moved to a managed currency system, and established the prerequisites for an active fiscal policy. The following year, fiscal 1957, he made the budget an expansionary budget for emergency relief, focusing on military expansion and civil engineering projects, and he decided to cover the annual budget deficit by issuing government bonds underwritten by the Bank of Japan. This fiscal policy brought about a major recovery in Japan's economy and is regarded as the first Keynesian fiscal policy in world history.

Meanwhile, after the re-ban on gold exports, the yen's exchange rate plummeted and exports increased, but Takahashi adopted a laissez-faire approach for a while, and then in the spring of 1933 he began to implement exchange controls in an attempt to stabilize the yen at a low level and promote exports, but other countries criticized this as currency dumping. As the economy eventually recovered, Takahashi became conscious of fiscal balance due to concerns about inflation caused by the issuance of deficit bonds, and in the fiscal 1936 budget he set out a policy of gradually reducing government bonds and curbing military spending, but this drew strong opposition from the military, and ultimately led to his assassination in the February 26 Incident. From then on, Japan's finances continued to expand uncontrollably.

[Tetsuya Hitosugi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

高橋是清(これきよ)は7代の内閣で蔵相を務めたが、そのうちとくに犬養毅(いぬかいつよし)、斎藤実(まこと)、岡田啓介(けいすけ)内閣時代、すなわち1931年（昭和6）12月から36年2月までの財政運営を一般に高橋財政とよんでいる。これに先だつ井上財政の金解禁・緊縮財政が大恐慌によって破綻(はたん)した後を受けて、犬養内閣の高橋蔵相には満州事変の戦費捻出(ねんしゅつ)と恐慌対策という二つの課題が課された。31年12月13日、つまり蔵相就任当日に金輸出再禁止を実施し、金本位制を停止して管理通貨制へ移行し、積極財政展開の前提条件を整えた高橋は、翌32年度予算を軍備拡張と土木事業を中心とした時局匡救(きょうきゅう)の膨張予算とし、歳計の赤字を日本銀行引受による公債発行でまかなうこととした。こうした財政展開は日本の景気を大きく回復させ、世界史上初のケインズ主義的財政政策と評価されている。

　一方、金輸出再禁止後の円の為替(かわせ)相場は急落して輸出が増加したが、高橋はしばらく放任主義をとり、やがて1933年春に為替管理を開始して、円相場の低位安定、輸出促進を図ったが、諸外国はこれを為替ダンピングと非難した。やがて景気回復とともに高橋は、赤字公債発行によるインフレ懸念から財政均衡を意識するようになり、36年度予算で公債漸減・軍事費抑制方針を打ち出したが、軍部の強い反発を招いて、ついに二・二六事件で暗殺されるに至る。以後、日本財政は歯止めを失って膨張の一途をたどった。

［一杉哲也］

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