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The East Asian Studies Center will present the workshop "Food Distribution and Consumption in Modern East Asia and the Japanese Empire" on Friday, November 17 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in 125 Mendenhall Lab. Myungsoo Kim, Keimyung University, and Kiyotaka Maeda, Keio University, will present. Mineharu Nakayama, The Ohio State University, will moderate, and Hajime Miyazaki, The Ohio State University, will serve as discussant.
"Incheon Rice Exchange and Circulation of Chosun Rice in Japan in the First Half of the Twentieth Century"
by Myungsoo Kim
After the Japanese victory in the Sino-Japanese War, Japanese merchants overwhelmed Chinese merchants in Korea, and the number of Japanese people moved in Incheon increased. In addition, commerce between Korea and Japan expanded. In particular, rice exports became larger than before the Sino-Japanese War. In 1895, rice exports through Incheon accounted for 78% of total rice exports in Korea. However, each province of Korea had restricted the export of rice to Japan due to poor food conditions with the Bang-goglyeong (Rice Export Control Law). Obviously, Japanese traders in Incheon had many difficulties in collecting Chosun rice. In addition, Japanese merchants thought that the quality of the collected rice became poor because sometimes it contained some water, which caused the rice price rice to fall. These problems were major obstacles for the Japanese traders in Incheon. To settle these problems, Japanese traders established the Rice Exchange in 1896. Until 1910. After the establishment of Incheon Rice Exchange, Chosun rice imports from all imported rice in Japan occupied up to 50 %. The rice shortage in Japan, which situation had not changed since the end of 19th century, did not improve in the 1910s and 1920s. The rice agitation in 1918 was the representative example which explain the rice shortage situation. The Rice Production Increase Plan of Korea, which began in 1926, was a nationwide project to make colonial Korea a food base for Japan. Korean Covernment-General’s rice policies made Korean market integrated to Japan during Japanese rule. In this paper, I will examine the market integration between colonial Korea and Japan focusing on the interrelation between the Incheon Rice Exchange and the Osaka Dojima Rice Exchange.
"Distinctive Pricing in the Metropole of the Integrated Empire's Economy: Japan's Central and Local Rice Markets, 1900-1939"
by Kiyotaka Maede
This study explores the spot and futures pricing of rice in Japan’s central and local cities during the period 1900–1939 to detect how importing primary products from the colonies impacted the commodity market in the metropole. The imperial country imported colonial primary products different in quality than the domestic ones to accelerate industrialization and the export of industrial goods to the colonies. During the process of commodity market to accommodate the trade expansion of colonial goods, the futures prices in the central cities, which were hubs of colonial goods, reflected the price fluctuation of imported goods. On the other hand, the minor exchange in the local cities, which tended not to trade colonial goods, augmented its price formation function. Based on the geographical heterogeneity of colonial goods circulation, this mechanism promoted economic growth and widened economic disparity within the empire.
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