The Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 was Japan’s most serious natural disaster of modern times, causing around 150,000 deaths and casualties and devastating large parts of the capital area. Focussing on the ways in which contemporaries sought to explain and analyse the economic impact of the disaster, Janet Hunter argues that while developments in the economics of disasters over recent decades may have provided us with more systematic and coherent frameworks for analysing and assessing the effects of a major natural disaster in a market economy, many of these ideas would have come as little surprise to commentators in 1920s Japan. In effect, the shared understanding of process and causality that existed in relation to the disaster foreshadowed later scholarship.
Janet Hunter is Saji Emeritus Professor of Economic History at LSE. Her research focusses on the economic history of modern Japan in comparative context. She has worked extensively on the development of the female labour market, the history of economic relations between Britain and Japan, and the development of communications.
Mary Morgan is Professor of Economic History at LSE. Her research interests include: history, philosophy and sociology of science, focussed on economics and statistics, models, measurements, experiments, observations and ‘travelling facts'.
The Department of Economic History (@LSEEcHist) is one of the world's leading centres for research and teaching economic history. It is home to a huge breadth and depth of knowledge and expertise ranging from the medieval period to the current century.
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