A History of Economic Science in Japan: The Internationalization of Economics in the Twentieth Century

Japanese economists began publishing scientific papers in renowned journals including Econometrica in the 1950s and made significant contributions to the sophistication of general equilibrium analysis by an intensive use of a variety of mathematical instruments. They contributed significantly to the transformation of neoclassical economics. This book examines how it became possible for Japanese economists to do so by shedding light on the "professional" discussion of the international gold standard and parity policies in the early twentieth century, the acceptance of "mathematical economics" in the following period, the impact of the establishment of the Econometric Society (1930) and the swift distribution of theory-oriented economics journals since 1930.

This book also includes topics on the historical research of the Japanese foundations of modern economics, the transformation of the economics of Keynes into Keynesian economics, Japanese developments in econometrics, and Martin Bronfenbrenner's visit to Japan in the post-World War II period.

This book provides insight into the economic research done by Japanese scholars in the international context. It traces how, during the period 1900-60, economics was harmonized with mathematics and a standard economics was reshaped on the basis of mathematics thanks to economists' appetite for rigor; and it will help to contribute to existing literature.

Aiko Ikeo is a historian of Japanese economics and economic thought. She has been working on the history of economic science and the internationalization of economics in the twentieth century with a focus on the Japanese contributions to the international community for two decades. Recently she has become interested in the economics of Tameyuki Amano (1861–1938) and the scientific thinking of Sontoku Ninomiya (1787-1856). She published Japanese books including Akamatsu Kaname (Nihonkeizaihyoronsha, 2008), A History of Economics in Japan (Nagoya University Press, 2006) and The Network of Economists in the Twentieth Century (Yuhikaku, 1994). She has edited Economic Development in Twentieth Century East Asia (Routledge, 1997) and Japanese Economics and Economists since 1945 (Routledge, 1999).