At the end of the Second World War over a thousand “wartime institutions” were ordered to cease operations by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) in Tokyo. Less than a century later, very little is known about these institutions deemed central to the Japanese war effort. At their very core were the parastatal “special companies” (Tokushu-gaisha 特殊会社): the special banks and financial institutions (including the Bank of Japan and the colonial central banks), the huge colonial development companies (exemplified by the South Manchuria Railway Company), the vast array of Manchurian industrial entreprises, and the myriad of closely-related subsidiaries and spin-off companies. Ostensibly, all of these public policy special companies were closed-down by the end of September 1945, often with US Army MPs symbolically taking control of their head-offices in Tokyo! In reality, though, many of these companies stayed in business, continued to function, and often were the only institution capable of providing goods and services to a certain sector of the economy (that is, they were “too big to fail”).

Similarly, many large and once-profitable special companies were able to reform, regroup, and re-capitalise their operations, particularly in the years after the Allied Occupation. Remarkably, a surprisingly large number of key former special companies are among Japan’s largest companies, and are now globally active in their respective fields. Against this background, my presentation aims to examine how the former special companies fared in the post-war period, and continue to shape Japan’s contemporary economic development.