2019年9月13日
Was Miyoji HAYAKAWA (1895–1962), the first Japanese translator of Walras, a neoclassical economist?
The 10th Conference of the International Walras Association (AIW), « Walras—Neoclassical? » On Walrasian Historiography
- 記述言語
- 英語
- 会議種別
- 口頭発表（一般）
- 主催者
- l’Association Internationale Walras (AIW)
- 開催地
- University of Lausanne
In 1931, Miyoji Hayakawa published the book, Introduction to Pure Economics of Léon Walras, which contains the Japanese translation of Walras’s Théorie mathématique de la richesse sociale (1883). It was the first translation of Walras’s works in Japan. In the same year, he also published the first Japanese translation of Pareto. Born to a wealthy landowning family in Hokkaido, Hayakawa studied in Europe during 1921–25. He studied under Dietzel at the University of Bonn and had an interview with Schumpeter in Vienna. Following Schumpeter’s advice to begin with Walras, Hayakawa worked on Walras’s general equilibrium theory. Hayakawa’s article, “The Application of Pareto’s Law of Income to Japanese Data” (1951) was the first article by a Japanese economist published in Econometrica.
Hayakawa, who introduced Walras and Pareto, is considered one of the pioneers of neoclassical economics in Japan. While many scholars from prominent families in Japan became socialists during that time, Hayakawa did not . In this paper, I will focus on the other aspects of his works to clarify his economic thought, which cannot be understood in terms of the simple opposition between neoclassical economics and socialism.
First, I will examine how Hayakawa, as an undergraduate student, abandoned writing a graduation thesis on Kropotkin because of speech control by the Japanese government in 1920.
Second, in Introduction to Pure Economics of Léon Walras (1931), Hayakawa included the first detailed biography and bibliography on Walras in Japanese. I will show how he paid attention to the formation process of not only Walras’s pure economics but also his social economics and socialist thinking in his younger days.
Third, Hayakawa is famous not only as an economist but also as a novelist. In 1933, after conducting a large-scale questionnaire survey in all the municipalities in Hokkaido to verify Pareto’s income curve, he commenced work on a long novel titled “Land and Men,” where he vividly described the poverty and misery of settlers in Hokkaido. I will clarify how his interest in literature and his career as a writer influenced his economic thought .
Hayakawa, who introduced Walras and Pareto, is considered one of the pioneers of neoclassical economics in Japan. While many scholars from prominent families in Japan became socialists during that time, Hayakawa did not . In this paper, I will focus on the other aspects of his works to clarify his economic thought, which cannot be understood in terms of the simple opposition between neoclassical economics and socialism.
First, I will examine how Hayakawa, as an undergraduate student, abandoned writing a graduation thesis on Kropotkin because of speech control by the Japanese government in 1920.
Second, in Introduction to Pure Economics of Léon Walras (1931), Hayakawa included the first detailed biography and bibliography on Walras in Japanese. I will show how he paid attention to the formation process of not only Walras’s pure economics but also his social economics and socialist thinking in his younger days.
Third, Hayakawa is famous not only as an economist but also as a novelist. In 1933, after conducting a large-scale questionnaire survey in all the municipalities in Hokkaido to verify Pareto’s income curve, he commenced work on a long novel titled “Land and Men,” where he vividly described the poverty and misery of settlers in Hokkaido. I will clarify how his interest in literature and his career as a writer influenced his economic thought .