Week 4. Garcia, Moises

In the first years after the war, Japan was merely surviving along with its people. They were taking aid from the US when it came to food and monetary assistance. They needed the assistance because they needed to provide for the citizens and the six million troops retuning from Asia, and on top of all of this there weren’t any available jobs for its citizens. Japan knew they had to make changes, so they decided that they would go through an economic reconstruction. Much of the reconstruction went towards rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure as well as its industrial and manufacturing. Their other goal was to keep Japan as a whole lightly armed; Japan thought that guns were a waste of resources and focused more on the economics of the country. Japan aimed to spend the least amount of money possible on the countries defense, while also not compromising themselves to be attacked by another country. Once Japan gained full independence from the US in 1952, the received pressure to normalize and become similar to countries like the US, but they stayed true to their vision. The “Sekei Bunri” (Separation of politics from economics) was huge to them, as they didn’t want politicians or any political reason as too why a law should be made that only made a few gain. They Kept economics by itself as the sector would focus on gains for the country as a whole and no certain segment of people should prosper over the other. I’d probably love to connect this to a country like the US, but it would be impossible to implement as our country is set up to where politics control every part of this country. Where president now a days can order for a wall to be built that uses up to almost six billion dollars, that could be used on something like healthcare id economics and politics were separate. 

• https://www.canon-igs.org/en/column/macroeconomics/20150213_2951.html
• Man, Tang Siew. Japan’s Grand Strategic Shift from Yoshida to Koizumi: Reflections on Japan’s Strategic Focus in the 21st Century.