일본의 재벌해체와 그것이 한국재벌정책에 주는 의미

Abstract

The Japanese economy before and during the second world war was

dominated by the Zaibatsu - a few powerful families, wedded for mutual

protection and advantage with influential elements of Japanese society - who

controlled the major part of the industry, mining, finance and commerce of

Japan, and in large part, livelihood of the people of Japan. Independent

enterprises and free competition existed, but only in minor segments of the

economy. Characteristically, Japan was a land of private internal economic

empires featured by international and domestic cartel arrangements; pyramids

of operating and holding companies reaching their apexes in top family

holding companies; monopolies of basic resources, key services and strategic

equipment; and control over major banking and insurance institutions. In

order to reorganize Japan on a peaceful basis, it was essential to depose the

Zaibatsu, break their stranglehold on economic enterprise, and give the

ordinary businessman a stake in a democratic nation. Dissolution of the

Zaibatsu was undertaken by the Allied Command. The objective was to

build a competitive, private enterprise economy, established on the base of

a widely distributed ownership. Application of the dissolution program would

occur in two stages. The first was thought of as a surgical operation that

would break up the combines and establish their various company units as

independent competitive enterprises. Zaibatsu owners would be compensated

for transferred securities, which would be sold widely to the public. If the

surgical operation was to be effective, it would also have to reckon with the

close-knit personnel relations of the combine's managerial staffs. For the...