From new liberalism to neoliberalism: Japanese economists and the welfare state before the 1980s

The chapter explores the intellectual background of the shift toward neoliberal policymaking in Japan. There existed a variety of New Liberal and neoliberal traditions in the Japanese economic thought, which meant the transition from one welfare regime to the next did not necessarily rest on imported ideas. The chapter describes New Liberalism and social liberalism between the wars and the intellectual basis of the postwar welfare regime (focusing on Fukuda, Ishibashi, and Ueda). It then describes the New Liberalism and neoliberalism in the postwar business world (focusing on Keizai-doyukai, the Japan Economic Research Institute, and the Institute of World Economy). The chapter describes the rise of neoliberalism, first under the radar, then explicitly after the mid-1970s (when Hayek won the Nobel Prize), focusing on Nishiyama.