The Expansion of Relief Finance for Predicaments: Industrial Cooperatives in the Interwar Period and the Establishment of the Central Bank for Cooperatives

The interwar period saw a significant change in the economic situation with a slowdown in the growth of Japan’s regional economies. This downturn formed the background to the development of an institutionalized system by which the Deposit Bureau Fund returned funds to rural areas. This chapter examines how popular funds-based financial networks were established in the interwar period and contributed to regional economies, especially in terms of their role of providing a safety net during social and economic crises. The Deposit Bureau Fund of the Ministry of Finance became the center of this new financial network. Following on from the establishment of the Central Bank for Industrial Cooperatives in 1923 and the national spread of industrial cooperatives by the interwar period, the links between the financial networks of industrial cooperatives and the Deposit Bureau strengthened further through the relief loans of 1927. Through an analysis of the actual conditions of relief lending in response to widespread frost damage in Nagano Prefecture in the financial crisis year of 1927, which triggered the building of closer ties and cooperation between the Deposit Bureau system and the industrial cooperative networks, this chapter probes into the development and function of the system for the investment of popular funds in regional economies in the interwar period.