This paper overviews the developments of the Bank of Japan's balance sheet from the Meiji era to postwar reconstruction. The paper assesses balance sheet items in terms of both nominal values and ratios to nominal GNP, using semiannual and monthly data reassembled from historical materials. In the semiannual data, the ratio of total assets to GNP remained at 10-15 percent in peacetime but increased to 19-48 percent in wartime, whereas it was 16 percent at most during financial crises. Meanwhile, banknotes remained stable, at 8-11 percent, except in the Bank's early years and at end of the Pacific War in 1941-45. The monthly data capture short-term changes during financial crises and rapid changes in economic and financial institutions, such as the 1923 earthquake, the return to the gold standard in 1930, and the emergency measures in 1946 that voided old banknotes to reduce money in circulation. These data provide useful information for research in history fields such as the identification of exogenous shocks.
Keywords: from the Meiji era to postwar reconstruction; the Bank of Japan’s balance sheet; historical records; semiannual data; monthly data
Views expressed in the paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Bank of Japan or Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies.