1964: An Olympic Year

In 1964, the international community finally developed a clear presence in the minds of the Japanese people.

In January, Prime Minister Ikeda Hayato said, "As we approach the move over to IMF Article 8 status and full membership of the OECD, Japan is finally entering the difficult phase of transition towards a genuinely open system. As the Japanese economy adapts to this new international environment, the most important step to ensure steady growth in the future is to achieve a long term equilibrium in the balance of payments."

In April that same year, Japan became an IMF Article VIII country, meaning that it could no longer impose exchange restrictions, and joined the OECD. On the recommendation of the IMF, Japan also became a GATT Article XI country, meaning that it could no longer restrict imports due to the international trade balance. In short, Japan became one of the world's advanced nations, achieving the transition to a fully fledged open economy. There was a reason, however, that Ikeda Hayato started this memorable year by referring to the time as "a difficult phase."

The fact was that becoming an Article VIII country meant that Japan would have to establish a more advanced system of cooperation with other member countries in areas such as economic growth, trade expansion, and assistance for developing countries. Moreover, GATT members are generally obliged to liberalize imports. In spite of the considerable impact on companies, the biggest issue for Japan was that of increasing exports to achieve equilibrium in the balance of payments.

Until 1964, Japan had not once enjoyed a favorable trade balance. Domestic demand increased in line with the country's economic recovery, particularly after the start of the 1960s as consumption went into overdrive and a leisure boom hit Japan, with the result that the postwar trade deficit peaked in 1961 at 567 billion yen.

November 1964 saw Ikeda resign due to ill health, with Sato Eisaku appointed as his successor. Sato pledged that Japan would "strive to negotiate an across-the-board reduction in tariffs under GATT and make full use of the opportunities arising from international cooperation to expand trade." He set about tackling international cooperation and the abolition of discriminatory restrictions on imports to Japan, laying firm foundations for economic growth. Japan went on to surpass West Germany in 1968 to become the world's number two in terms of GNP.

Fun and Games

The 1964 Olympics marked the first time that the games had been held in Asia. Tokyo had been selected in 1936 as the venue for the 1940 Olympics, but Japan, increasingly isolated from the international community with the advance of war, pulled out in 1938. Understandably, 1964 saw the Japanese people in jubilant mood. Japan's cities were thoroughly modernized ahead of the Olympics; streets were cleaned up and decorated, a network of expressways was built, a monorail linking Haneda Airport to the center of Tokyo was opened, and the Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train line went into operation, boasting the fastest trains in the world.

The Olympic event that captured the attention of the Japanese people above all was the women's volleyball. The Japanese team had come away from a two-month tour of Europe in 1961 with a record of 24 victories from 24 games. The sight of the slightly-built Japanese players continuously scooping up the ball led the European press to dub the team the "Witches of the Orient." The Japanese public's joy reached a peak in the Olympic final as the so-called witches went on to defeat the Soviet Union.

The triumphant Japanese women's volleyball team consisted largely of members of the Nichibo (now Yunitiaka) Kaizuka team. Established in Osaka in 1889, Nichibo Kaizuka was a major firm in the textile industry. The team's strength could even be said to have symbolized that of the textile industry, which had been one of the driving forces behind Japanese industry since the latter part of the nineteenth century.

That same year, there was a trend known as the "Ivy" look popular amongst young men and some women in Japan. Brands such as Van and Jun were styled in the image of clothes worn at the eight prestigious eastern American colleges that make up the Ivy League. Japan had moved on from the time of postwar shortages and into a materially affluent era; the days when any clothes would do had come to an end and people had started to demand fashionable clothing.

1964 was also the year that overseas tourism was liberalized and people started to board airplanes and jet off overseas on holiday, the most popular destination being Hawaii. Among the travelers were scores of young Japanese sporting blue blazers and chinos.

The Japan Journal looks back on some of the key moments in sixty years of postwar Japanese history. Part III...