Restoration of Trade and Economic Relations between the USSR and Japan after the Second World War

Original Russian title: «Восстановление торгово-экономических отношений между СССР и Японией после Второй мировой войны».

UDC: 94(47+520)“1955/1958”:339.56

Published in Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University, Series 2: History, issue 4 (2009), pp. 105–109.

Argument

The restoration of trade and economic relations between the USSR and Japan in the post-war period is usually correlated with the signing of the 1957 Trade Agreement, while little note is taken of the preparatory efforts that preceded it. This is largely a consequence of the source situation: most records of the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the USSR remained classified. The study therefore builds on the materials of the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (AVPRF) — in particular File 146 (Japan), which systematises documents on trade, economic issues and technical cooperation, together with analytical reviews of the Japanese press and reference data prepared by the Far East Department of the Soviet MOFA — and, in part, on the records of Tsentrosoyuz (the Central Union of Consumer Cooperatives) held in the Russian State Archive of the Economy (RGAE).

On this basis the article advances a central claim: it was Soviet and Japanese cooperators who pioneered the re-establishment of trade and economic relations between the two countries. Cooperative trade with Japan has not been adequately studied and has usually been collapsed into coastal trade; the article argues that it should be distinguished as a separate and independent form of exchange.

Chronology reconstructed from the archives

• 1954 — The 19th Congress of the International Cooperative Alliance is the first step: Tsentrosoyuz representatives invite a Japanese mission to visit the USSR for the first time since the war.
• 1955 — A mission of the Japanese Union of Consumer Societies visits the USSR. The Soviet side deliberately favours cooperative channels, less tied to the state and representing small and medium business. Mission head Takeshige Ishiguro engages directly with A. P. Klimov, Chairman of the Board of Tsentrosoyuz.
• March 1956 — The negotiations lead to the founding of the Japanese Cooperative Trade Company (authorised capital ¥1,500,000).
• 26 April 1956 — The first official post-war contract (artificial fibres for round timber) is concluded — several months before the joint Declaration restoring diplomatic relations.
• 27 August 1956 — JETRO invites Soviet trade organisations to the 4th international trade fair in Japan (May 1957), signalling the warming political climate.
• 6 December 1957 — The USSR–Japan Trade Agreement is signed in Moscow.

Interpretation

Japanese opinion split along commercial lines. Government circles and firms tied to the United States were cautious — Minister Ishibashi doubted the USSR had goods worth importing beyond timber, oil and coal. But the trade and industrial circles of the northern and Sea-of-Japan prefectures, largely organised in cooperative associations, pressed for expansion, hoping to relieve underused capacity and revive their ports. The article concludes that this medium and small business lobby, convinced of the profitability of trade with the USSR, overcame the resistance of the major monopolies and pushed the Japanese government toward the 1957 agreement.

Archival citations: AVPRF, f. 146 (op. 45–51); RGAE, f. 484, op. 19, d. 2056.