On the Market of the Japanese Shipbuilding Industry in the Nineteen-twenties

HASHIMOTO Juroh

doi:10.20624/sehs.40.2_149

The purpose of this article is to analyse the market structure of the Japanese shipbuilding industry and to inquire into the formation of an actual monopoly system in the shipbuilding industry in the nineteen-twenties. In this analysis, we want to take a serious view of the side of demand, that is to say, we want to see the relation of the shipbuilding industry to the shipping industry and the Navy Office (Kaigunsho). For it was the most important factor that determined the structure of the monopoly. In the nineteen-twenties the scale of the market was greatly reduced and the price fo ships went down. Many large trampers having become bankrupt, it was only the two big liners, Nippon Yusen and Osaka Shosen, to give their names, that presented demand for ships. Those two liners and Mitsubishi Zosen stably combined in the market. This combination was supported by the two factors. One was the relation of Konzern. Both Mitsubishi Zosen and Nippon Yusen belonged to Mitsubishi Konzern. The other was the monopoly of the technology to produce internal combustion engines (Diesel engines). In the nineteen-twenties, shipping interests, especially liners, were under the necessity to improve power of ships. As the competition with foreign shipping capital intensified, Japanese liners were obliged to make their ships sail faster so as to realize rapider transit and reduce the cost of sailing. This need of liners was met by the adoption of Diesel engines. In the latter half of the nineteen-twenties when requirement of the two big liners became acute, it was Mitsubishi Zosen that corresponded to it. Mitsubishi Zosen, therefore, came to dominate the market of merchant ships. On the other hand, the monopoly system was established in the market of warships. Washington Treaties conditioned the limitation of armaments and in the reduced market scale Mitsubishi Zosen and Kawasaki Zosen dominated the market. The monopoly of war supplies was supported by the relation between the Navy Office and the shipbuilding enterprises exclusively under contract with the Navy Office. As a result, the actual monopoly system in the shipbuilding industry with Mitsubishi Zosen as its center was established in the nineteen-twenties.

On the Market of the Japanese Shipbuilding Industry in the Nineteen-twenties

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