Panel 50: Policy and Production in Modern China and Japan

Chair: Joshua Eisenman, University of Notre Dame

Panelists

Karol Żakowski, University of Lodz, “Comparative Analysis of Decision-Making Processes over the Income-Doubling Plan and the Plan for Remodeling the Japanese Archipelago”

In 1960, Japanese Prime Minister Ikeda Hayato declared the Income-Doubling Plan (Shotoku Baizō Keikaku), and in 1972, Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei proposed the Plan for Remodeling the Japanese Archipelago (Nihon Rettō Kaizō Ron). The former aimed to double real gross national product within 10 years, while the latter was a policy to promote rural industrialization and the construction of rapid transit networks. The purpose of this paper is to compare the decision-making processes over both plans. Various factors will be analyzed, such as the prime ministers’ political interests, inter-ministerial competition, the balance of power within the Liberal Democratic Party and Japanese public opinion, with a particular focus on the roles of the Prime Minister’s Office, ruling party backbenchers and major ministries.

It is argued that both the Income-Doubling Plan and the Plan for Remodeling the Japanese Archipelago were the results of cooperation between prime ministers and development bureaucrats. Both projects were relatively easy to promote in response to public expectations during the period of high economic growth, but they also required coordination of interests within the ruling party and between ministries. While the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) stood behind Ikeda’s policy, Ministries of Construction and Transport, along with MITI, were responsible for Tanaka’s initiative. It will be analyzed what kind of formal and informal institutional tools both heads of government used to advance their projects despite skepticism and opposition from veto players such as the Ministry of Finance.

Ruifeng Dong, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, “Regulating the Brands: Baijiu Industry During the Economic Reform Era in the People’s Republic of China”

Current research on the baijiu (Chinese alcohol) industry has primarily focused on fermentation technologies and the branding history of prominent baijiu companies like Kweichow Moutai (Maotai). These studies are overshadowed by commercial narratives that depict the industry’s success as attributed to historical heritage, individual efforts, and technological advancements, while downplaying the critical role of local governments in establishing and supporting the baijiu industry in southwestern China since the 1980s. Drawing from county archives in Sichuan Province, fieldwork in local baijiu distilleries, and interviews with former state-owned factory managers and entrepreneurs, my ongoing project examines the commercial and political influences that have shaped the history of baijiu brands in the region. It argues that the industry’s development was closely linked to the initiatives of local governments, often spanning multiple regions. For instance, enforcement actions by local Departments of Industry and Commerce against baijiu smugglers—involved in trafficking baijiu from state-owned factories and Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs), with networks including local garrisons and border military depots in Tibet—demonstrate local governments’ increasing awareness of the need to regulate and safeguard local brands during the 1980s. Another story involving a local brand’s exclusion from the National Alcohol Judgement Conference illustrates local governments’ competitive efforts to monopolize the baijiu market in the 1980s. These stories reflect changing perceptions of marketization and how to “reform” the economy among local governments and entrepreneurs during this transformative period. The paper presents a viewpoint that sets the stage for a comprehensive study, enabling us to explore the broader effects of Economic Reform on the transformation and restructuring of local communities and economic activities.

Joshua Eisenman, University of Notre Dame, and Wenhui Yang, Peking University, “Strength in Numbers? The Effects of Chinese Communist Party Membership on Agricultural Production (1949–1987)”

How has Chinese Communist Party (CCP) membership affected agricultural production? Using four decades (1949-1987) of county-level panel data, this study explains how variations in the proportion of the population who were CCP members influenced grain output. Our analysis reveals that CCP membership affected agricultural production differently in the Maoist (1949–1977) and reform (1978–1987) periods. In the Maoist period, counties with more CCP members per capita experienced significantly more production, whereas in the reform period, a higher number of CCP members played a significant negative role. We find that the divergent effects of CCP membership on agricultural production were the result of policy changes (i.e., collective vs. household farming) and the different incentives they created for cadres at the local level. Moreover, our model demonstrates how during the Maoist period, women’s political participation, agricultural modernization, and cadre education levels were all statistically significant drivers of productivity growth. In the reform era, by contrast, these variables had either a negative effect or were not significant.