Unoist contributions to the triangular debate on money theory in Japan

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the triangular debate on money theory, or money reform, in contemporary Japan and to show the unique contribution of neo-Unoists to the debate. The debates on money theory in the socioeconomic context of Japan are chiefly between Reflationists (who hold to a kind of monetarist policy), Modern Money Theorists (MMT), and Marxists (neo-Unoists). As the policy arguments put forward by each school depend on their theoretical frameworks, the validity of their respective policies is closely related to the validity of the theoretical frameworks that support them. To unravel the Japanese debate on money theory, this paper sets the Marxian money theory, updated by neo-Unoists, as the analytical framework to examine the validity of each school’s theoretical claims, while acknowledging the presence of monetarism and MMT, and the internal debate within the Japanese Marxian school.