I can’t find anything about this Japanese contemporary of Mises. He was an Austrian who published 30 books and 100 papers. I don’t think any of his works have been published in English. It seems quite tragic really that language barriers have robbed us of experiencing his works. I wonder if there are any projects underway to translate any of his books into english? The only thing I can find on him is this interview from 1997:
Anyone have any updates, or anything really?
Discuss.
I think I’ll just post the relevant parts of the interview to save you all a click:
"AEN: First let’s talk about the paper you presented at the Austrian Scholars Conference. Tell us about Katsuichi Yamamoto, who seems somewhat like Mises’s Japanese counterpart.
OKON: I was so pleased to see Yamamoto’s name listed in the Mises Institute’s time line in the**Austrian Family Album. My dream is that Austrians all over the world would come to know his name and his contributions to economics. He was born in 1896, so he was younger than Mises and older than Hayek. He died in 1987 at the age of 91. He published 30 books and more than 100 papers, essays, and notes. Soon I’ll have the opportunity to visit his archive in the National Library of Japan in Tokyo. It’s very far from Wakayama, so it’s a rare opportunity for me.
AEN: Are you now writing his biography?
OKON: Yes, but it is a long-term project. In the course of my research, I hope to arrange for the publication of Yamamoto’s most important work. This will be a key to promoting Austrian economics in Japan. My first article on Yamamoto appears in the inaugural issue of the economics journal of Wakayama University.
AEN: Let’s begin with Yamamoto’s intellectual influences.
OKON: He grew up at the turn of the century in severe poverty. In 1910, when he was 14 years old, he witnessed a series of dramatic political events. The Japanese government accused some socialist and anarchist writers, most famously Syuusui Kotoku, of plotting the death of the Emperor Meiji. Twelve people were put to death. Two of them were from Yamamoto’s village. This was the first time he heard names such as Peter Kropotokin and Karl Marx.
When he began his serious study of economics in 1920, he was first attracted to the ideas of Hajime Kawakami, a professor at Kyoto Imperial University and author of Binbo Monogatari*, or* A Study of Poverty, first published in installments in the newspapers from September to December of 1916*.*This series established Kawakami as one of Japan’s leading Marxian thinkers.
Yamamoto went to Kyoto solely for the purpose of studying with Kawakami. So when he finished his studies, and began teaching at the Wakayama College of Commerce, he was a Marxist. He went about enlightening the bourgeoisie and the working class about the oppressiveness of capitalism. However, as he later recalled, he had felt some contradiction in Marx’s theory from the beginning.
AEN: How did he make the transition?
OKON: Through the writings of Physiocrat journalist Guillaume Francois Le Trosne and economist A.R.J. Turgot, whom Murray Rothbard regards as a direct forerunner to the modern Austrian School. Yamamoto discovered these writers during studies he undertook in France from 1925 to 1927. Yamamoto was fluent in French.
When he came back to Wakayama, he began teaching the subjective theory of value to his classes. The next year he published two very important papers: “Turgot’s Theory of Value” (Naigai Kenkyu1:2*)* *and “Theories of Value in Physiocracy” (*Keizai Ronso 26:3). These were his first repudiations of Marxian economics. Then he topped them off with a direct hit on Kawakami’s theories in the very next issue of Naigai Kenkyu.
Then in 1930, his fullest treatment appeared: On Marxism: A Critical Study (Kyoto: Shiso-Kenkyuukai)**. This book sold tens of thousands of copies. He wrote it before he had read Mises and Hayek–that would come later–but the book is still right on the mark. He exposed the theoretical weaknesses and inconsistencies in Marxian historical materialism and surplus value theory. He said communism couldn’t work because no one is clever enough to manage it under collective ownership–an argument similar to Hayek’s.
AEN: When did he finally make contact with the modern Austrian School?
OKON: Actually, he follows Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk’s argument fairly closely in this 1930 book. He used it to attack the Marxian idea of exploitation. But his knowledge of Mises must have come about in 1931, when he went to Germany and the Soviet Union to observe the realities of the planned economy. He was curious how the problem of calculating profit and loss would be handled by these socialist systems. The result was his second book, Economic Calculation: The Fundamental Problem of Planned Economies (1932). In it he examines the views of Neurath, Tschajanoff, Varga, Strumilin, Leichter, Kautsky, Heimann, Halm, and, at last, Mises.
AEN: What about Hayek?
OKON: It’s a curious fact that he doesn’t mention Hayek or raise knowledge-problem types of arguments at all. Most likely it was too early in the debate. Instead, his style of argument is entirely Misesian. After presenting all of Mises’s views, he writes: “I have nothing to add to Mises’s argument. I must confess he is totally right.”
AEN: That would make this a very early account of the socialist calculation debate in the history of thought.
OKON: Since Hayek’s edited volume didn’t appear until 1935, and Trygve Hoff’s book didn’t appear until 1938, I think we can say that Yamamoto’s book was the first in the world to systematically analyze the socialist calculation debate.
Yamamoto then went to teach the mostly Marxist students at the Kokumin Seishin Bunka Kenkyusyo (The Institute for Japanese Spirit and Culture), where he tried to disabuse them of their fallacies from 1932 until the war. This was a period when Marxism was very popular among academics. Marx’s**Das Kapital became a best-seller, and the leading Marxians were people like Yoshitaro Omori, Itsuro Sakisaka, and Moritaro Yamamada.
AEN: Yamamoto could speak German as well?
OKON: Yes. When he went to Russia, there were no Japanese interpreters available. So he took a Russian-speaking German translator with him. So from Russian to German to Japanese, Japanese audiences got a glimpse of life under Soviet socialism. Also, he spoke English, and during these years testified before the U.S. Congress.
AEN: Just so we are clear, thanks to Yamamoto’s 1932 book, Japanese economists knew about the socialist calculation debate before English-speaking economists?
OKON: Three years before. Yes.
AEN: What do you find unique about Yamamoto’s approach to the subject?
OKON: Well, he was the only one of the Austrians who actually traveled to the Soviet Union in the thirties to observe what was taking place, and to evaluate it in terms of Austrian theory. He wrote three key articles: “The Russian Farmer Under Communism” (1934), “A Trial of the Planned Economy in Russia” (1936), and “Prices in a Socialist State” (1938).
AEN: What about on the theoretical front?
OKON: He presented Mises’s and others’ views very clearly. And he also made what I think is an impressive and perhaps original criticism of socialist Eduard Heimann’s argument on the calculation problem. Heimann had argued that it was possible to abolish private property in the means of production and still retain the ability to calculate factor prices, so long as markets for consumer goods are retained. The values could simply be imputed backwards from consumers to producers, since values are connected as if by an “elastic string.”
But Yamamoto pointed out that in order to have true economic calculation, profits and losses must be calculated by comparing prices and costs. But these prices and costs must be formed independently of each other in their respective markets or otherwise they will not reflect real conditions.
The mutual independence of all product markets and all production markets implies that appraisement is necessary in all markets. Otherwise, economic calculation will not be rational. Abolishing property and markets in factor goods is the equivalent of cutting the “elastic string” and introducing chaos.
AEN: Did Yamamoto extend his analysis to the mixed economy?
OKON: Actually, this was one of his main accomplishments during this period. He was a relentless critic of *keizai tosei (*economic control) as practiced by the Japanese government and army in the 1930s. First came the cartelization of industries deemed important by the government. Then came the controls on capital flight. Then came the nationalization of utilities.
Finally, by 1938, the “National Mobilization Law” was imposed. It gave the government complete power to control all people and all resources. Japan finally had the wartime economy or tousei-keizai. Even today, we see the effects of this tragic step, in the form of a huge and hugely powerful national police force.
All during this time, the government kept claiming that property was still in the hands of private owners. The government’s role was merely in regulating production and distribution. But Yamamoto correctly pointed out that private property was merely a disguise for market socialism.
AEN: Did he ever come under fire for his views?
OKON: Certainly. But he never compromised his relentless arguments. For example, on the nationalization of electricity, he pointed out that the question of whether this or that facility ought to be built is not a technical question but an economic one, which can only be settled by market exchange. He also pointed out that one intervention inevitably leads to more to correct the distortions generated in the first round, a process that ends in the total state.
In 1941, a collection of these blistering writings appeared as A Criticism of the Planned Economy*. It is a great book. But just as soon as it was published, the authorities banned it and forced it out of print. So it was never circulated widely and, sadly, never came back into print.*
AEN: And then after the war?
OKON: This is when tragedy struck. General MacArthur’s occupation forces put Japan under martial law. They rounded up intellectuals suspected of having sympathies with the imperial system. Yamamoto, even as an outspoken free-market economist, was targeted and accused of being an imperial sympathizer. I can think of many things to say about him, but this is not among them. It was the height of ironies. Nonetheless, Yamamoto was jailed by MacArthur for a grueling two years.
During this time, he was forbidden from publishing anything, which accounts for the gap in his vita from 1942 to 1945. It seems tragedy had struck Austrians all over the world. At a time when Mises was struggling to get a job in the U.S., after having been forced to flee his homeland, Yamamoto was jailed by occupation forces in his own country.
After getting out of jail, Yamamoto immediately went back to work on his life’s mission. He worked to establish a Liberal Party of Japan, drafted a plan for post-war economic recovery, was professor of economics at Chuo Gakuin University, and was elected to the Diet five times.
AEN: It appears that Yamamoto’s life and intellectual interests parallel that of Mises’s and Hayek’s.
OKON: Yes, even on the question of Keynesianism. In 1955, the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party merged, and the new party made Keynesianism its official economic doctrine. The government’s Economic Council Board was renamed the Economic Planning Agency. It produced a “Five Year Plan for Economic Self-Support,” which not only gave the projected figures for the next year but also spelled out needed measures to implement the plan.
Yamamoto criticized the plan by pointing out that the government cannot determine the correct prices for countless goods and services. It can’t know all the people’s demands. It can’t forecast people’s abilities and available resources. It can’t anticipate all available technologies and it can’t account for potential natural disasters. He said the only institution that can do these and properly respond to unexpected changes is the free market. Also, during this period, he wrote a book in tribute to Ludwig Erhard, the German free-market reformer.
AEN: And the welfare state?
OKON: The Japanese welfare state began about this same time, in 1955. The new party imposed a series of programs, like unemployment insurance, social security, a guaranteed national income. In 1957, the Kishi cabinet pushed the slogan, “The Abolition of Poverty (By Government Activity).”
Welfare systems are never stable, especially not social security. The revenues are used to fund the present generation, so it’s unclear whether my generation will receive anything from the program. The government has tried to solve this situation through an ever-rising tax rate. But clearly that can’t work forever.
All this was predicted by Yama- moto in his book A Warning About Social Security: Its Limit in a Free Society, which appeared in 1961. Later came his even more controversial book Welfare and the Ruin of the Country (1975*).* Here he argued against the idea of dependency on government, on the grounds that it is contrary to true social cooperation. You will be pleased to know this book was dedicated to Mises, Hayek, and Roepke, who, Yamamoto says, most strongly influenced his thought.
AEN: What was Yamamoto’s last book about?
OKON: It was a collection of articles published in 1980 under the title The Struggle Against Socialism*. In one particularly important chapter, he deals with how markets accommodate drastic and shocking change much better than government can. In “severe trials of reality,” like natural disasters and oil shocks, firms and families adapt themselves to changes in accord with their own needs, while government intervention can only obstruct the attempt to deal with these trials."*
I temporarily stickied this for two weeks in order to see if that could help with the responses. At a later date, I might permanently sticky this thread.
Wow, thanks.
That is so interesting. Thank you. I was complaining to myself that there was not enough analysis of foreign (non-western) economies by Austrians. I would really like to read anything that was written about imperial japan by this man.
Someone posted another link to a Japanese libertarian site a while back, but I don’t have it where I am. I could add this site to the list though. It looks like he makes some translations, so maybe it would be worth it to get in touch with him. My Japanese isn’t that good, but I will do it if nobody else does.
17 page paper from the interviewee regarding Yamamoto
I check out http://www.anarchyjapan.com/ from time to time.
That was a very interesting read. Thanks JosephBright.
There are a handful of Japanese libertarian sites, including ones that have translation of Rothbard and D. Friedman’s AnCap works. They are pretty good about linking to each other, but here’s a site that I didn’t see anywhere (all links below are in Japanese).
http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~biblio/index.htm
The interviewee Hiroyuki Okon (尾近裕幸) is a professor of Economic Theory and Austrian Economics at Kokugakuin University in Shibuya. Next time I’m in Tokyo maybe I’ll stop buy during his office hours. He often seems to collaborate with Tsutomu Hashimoto (橋本努), who teaches way north of Tokyo in Sapporo, Hokkaido. These two guys wrote a whole book on Austrian Economics. The guy this article is about is Katsuichi Yamamoto (the kanji is 山本勝市, not 山本勝一 or 山本克一).
I’m a Japanese-to-English translator by trade, specializing in investor relations and finance, so maybe I could translate some short stuff as a means of procrastinating when I’m supposed to be translating something else (like I am at this very moment).
Here’s a brief blog post (in Japanese) about this interview in the blog E. R. Olovetto posted above.
http://libertarian.seesaa.net/article/37255099.html
The blogger says he didn’t even know who the Yamamoto guy was, and remarked that these profs would do better to translate Mises into Japanese than write academic articles that “no one will read.” Maybe he has a point, but it’d super-cool to get a perspective on the nuts and bolts of the Japanese economy from an Austrian perspective. And maybe there are some new pieces of wisdom in there.
Note that Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom (隷属への道) has been translated into Japanese.
The city of Sakai in Osaka was apparently an AnCap-like paradise during the Sengoku Era of Japan’s history. It of course thrived like mad during that period, with merchants providing defense and such. Or so the one random blog post I can find on the subject says.
Thanks for that. Maybe it would be best to get into contact with professor Okon?
Wow, this is all incredibly great information AJ! Thank you. Since you are a professional Japanese to English translator, have you ever contacted the Mises Institute and inquired about translating one of Yamamoto or Okon’s books? Perhaps the institute could fund a translation or two.
Translation is an extremely slow process so a book would take forever, but I could maybe do an essay if there is a single really important one. I’m also not sure if my economics knowledge is up to the task. I’ve mostly focused on political and social theory. But I can sure give it a shot.
More interesting might be an interview with one or both of these profs on the situation in Japan. There really needs to be a Japanese version of Meltdown written specifically for Japan and drawing on examples from Japan’s own economic situation. Okon’s English seems more than adequate for doing an interview, but if some translation is needed I could certainly help.
By the way, here is Bastiat’s The Law (法) in Japanese, translated by the Japanese libertarian blogger Kyuuri.
Here’s also Bastiat’s essay “That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen” (見えるものと見えないもの).
David Friedman’s The Machinery of Freedom (自由のためのメカニズム) has been translated as a published book, and it seems to have gotten very good reviews among Japanese people.
Walter Block’s Defending the Undefendable (不道徳教育) has a whole bunch of reviews on Amazon! Very controversial in Japan as well. The Japanese title (“Immoral Education”) kinda sucks, as several Japanese reviewers remarked, but apparently it worked to get a lot of readers. Many reviewers found the daring counterintuitive arguments fascinating. One Amazon reviewer titles his review with a typical sentiment: 誰の権利も侵害してない人の権利を侵害することは、たとえその人が不道徳であったとしても正当化できない, which means roughly, “It is not justifiable to violate the rights of someone who is not violating anyone else’s rights, even if that person is immoral” (“immoral” meaning more like “has vices”).
I have a feeling Katsuichi Yamamoto would be a big hit if his works were translated and sold through the Mises Institute.
If anything, Yamamoto’s works should become the centerpiece for a Japanese-style Mises Institute, just as Rothbard’s and Mises’s works have become the centerpiece of LvMI here.
Cool stuff!
The only thing semi-related to this are some books I found in a Taiwanese bookstore a year ago:
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/8154/bookstoreintaiwanel4.jpg
I see. Perhaps you can contact Okon and find out if there is a really good one that should be translated.
And I wonder if we should ask Jeffrey about the possibility of the institute contracting a translator (Maybe Okon himself, although he is perhaps busy) to do some translations?
I agree, but I think there would also be immense interest for his works in english. Imagine, the works of another Misesean!
Hi AJ,
You’ve mentioned a Japanese website to me before, but the problem is that I can’t judge if it fits with my intended purpose for my libertarian websites list ( http://www.vforvoluntary.com/wiki/LibertarianWebsites ).
I’ve added a description on that site of the kind of sites I’d like to list. Would you like to register on the Wiki and add the Japanese section according to that guideline?
I could contact him, but given his English ability I think anyone here probably could (address: okon [at] kokugakuin.ac.jp ).
J-E translation is really unbelievably expensive if the LvMI wanted to hire a passable professional translator. If, for instance, the company I work for now were to bill for translation of a typical 100,000-word book, the price would be over $70,000 (not a typo). On the cheap end someone could do it for maybe $10,000. Better to find an “angel translator” who would do it for dirt cheap. Someone who has the interest (like me) but also has several months worth of free time (not like me). Given the numbers I’d say it’s unlikely a book will get translated from Japanese to English (English to Japanese is much cheaper), so I think it’ll be essays or nothing.
It’s titled アナルコ・キャピタリズム研究（仮）ブログ “Anarch-Capitalism Research (working title) Blog” and has links to mises.org and a whole bunch of similar sites, as well as many Japanese libertarian sites like the one Olovetto linked above. There is a lot of original translation provided as well, so I’m pretty sure it fits your requirements.
