An Overview of Financial Reforms in Japan -Path Dependence and Adaptive Efficiency-

半世紀以上にわたってわれわれに影響を及ぼし続けてきた日本の金融システムは，昭和金融恐慌という危機にその淵源を求めることができる．そして今や，このシステムは新たな危機に直面し，終焉を迎えている．この論文は，この日本の金融制度の生成，発展，そして終息の過程を長期的な視野に立脚して展望する．展望にあたって鍵となるコンセプトは，Path dependence とadaptive efficiency の二つである．この二つのコンセプトに基づいて，以下の点を明らかにしたい．すなわち，昭和金融恐慌以降の政府の政策が，高度成長期に確立した銀行融資中心の金融システムの先行条件を与えたこと．そして，システム確立の過程で，外敵環境の変化に対する適応を阻害する力を醸成したこと，である．This paper is an overview of the Japanese financial system from the long-term perspective. The bank-loan-based system, which has dominated the Japanese financial inter mediation mechanisms for the last half century, was based on some preconditions. This paper explains that the Japanese government deliberately prepared those preconditions to overcome the fragile banking sector during the 1920s, to control financial allocation during the wartime economy, and to reform the corporate system immediately after World War II. This paper also explains how the government policy produced inertia in the financial system that prevented the system from adapting itself to rapid environmental changes since the 1980s. The lack of adaptability has caused a serious crisis in the Japanese financial system