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Conscription Insurance in Pre-war Japan - Private Enterprise and National Interest

Conscription Insurance in Pre-war Japan - Private Enterprise and National Interest Japan’s Conscription Law of 1873 constituted a core element of the military reforms implemented by the Meiji government. The law implied an additional burden in the form of a “tax in kind” which would not be shared equally, because only a small portion of those eligible to serve were actually recruited. As the government neither alleviated the hardship nor corrected the inequalities created by the conscription system, local communities and private entrepreneurs took initiative. One response was conscription insurance. Introduced toward the end of the 19th century, it established itself as an important segment of Japan’s insurance industry in pre-war Japan with a performance comparable to that of the life insurance industry. Despite its success, Japan’s conscription insurance has so far not attracted the attention of international scholars. This paper takes a first step towards filling the gap. It describes the background of the major companies, evaluates their core product and analyses the performance of the industry. It argues that a major factor in the success of the industry was the ability of the companies to position themselves and their product as serving the national interest. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Contemporary Japan Taylor & Francis

Conscription Insurance in Pre-war Japan - Private Enterprise and National Interest

Jiang, YingYing
Contemporary Japan , Volume OnlineFirst: 23 – Oct 20, 2022
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Conscription Insurance in Pre-war Japan - Private Enterprise and National Interest

Abstract

Japan’s Conscription Law of 1873 constituted a core element of the military reforms implemented by the Meiji government. The law implied an additional burden in the form of a “tax in kind” which would not be shared equally, because only a small portion of those eligible to serve were actually recruited. As the government neither alleviated the hardship nor corrected the inequalities created by the conscription system, local communities and private entrepreneurs took...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2022 German Institute for Japanese Studies
ISSN
1869-2737
eISSN
1869-2729
DOI
10.1080/18692729.2022.2133667
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Japan’s Conscription Law of 1873 constituted a core element of the military reforms implemented by the Meiji government. The law implied an additional burden in the form of a “tax in kind” which would not be shared equally, because only a small portion of those eligible to serve were actually recruited. As the government neither alleviated the hardship nor corrected the inequalities created by the conscription system, local communities and private entrepreneurs took initiative. One response was conscription insurance. Introduced toward the end of the 19th century, it established itself as an important segment of Japan’s insurance industry in pre-war Japan with a performance comparable to that of the life insurance industry. Despite its success, Japan’s conscription insurance has so far not attracted the attention of international scholars. This paper takes a first step towards filling the gap. It describes the background of the major companies, evaluates their core product and analyses the performance of the industry. It argues that a major factor in the success of the industry was the ability of the companies to position themselves and their product as serving the national interest.

Journal

Contemporary Japan – Taylor & Francis

Published: Oct 20, 2022

Keywords: Conscription insurance; conscription; Pre-war Japan; Japanese military; public good

References

  • Adverse Selection in Insurance Markets: Policyholder Evidence from the UK Annuity Market
  • “Waga kuni ni okeru chōhei hoken jigyō o kaerimite, 1.” (Looking Back on Our Country’s Conscription Insurance Business, 1)
  • “Waga kuni ni okeru chōhei hoken jigyō o kaerimite, 2.” (Looking Back on Our Country’s Conscription Insurance Business, 2)
  • “Waga kuni ni okeru chōhei hoken jigyō o kaerimite, 3.” (Looking Back on Our Country’s Conscription Insurance Business, 3)
  • “Seimei hoken gaisha no kōkoku katsudō ni kansuru kenkyū” (Research on the Advertising Activities of Life Insurance Companies)
  • Entrepreneurship in A Transition Economy: Life Insurance in Meiji Japan
  • Jinji kōshin-roku (Personal Credit Register), 4th Edition
  • Jinji Kōshin-roku (Personal Credit Register), 8th Edition
  • The Institutions of Conscription
  • Insurance Tendencies in Japan
  • Soldier and Peasant in Japan. The Origins of Conscription
  • Soldier and Peasant in Japan. The Origins of Conscription (Part II)
  • Conscription, the Military, and Welfare State Development: An Introduction
  • Chōhei hoken seido o setchi shite sōtei yūgū, Shakai seisaku o kami suru shin heieki-hō
  • The Fiscal Role of Conscription in the U.S. World War II Effort