Shashin Shuho also put out a number of advertisements to promote efforts to save money.

After the start of the Sino-Japanese War, citizens were encouraged to saving money to help facilitate the redemption of government bonds and loans to the military industry. Savings efforts were promoted in an organized manner by the National Savings Encouragement Bureau, which was established within the Ministry of Finance on April 18, 1938 as the bureau in charge of operations for encouraging people to save money.

Document 1 is a notification the Secretariat of the Army Ministry issued to Army personnel on April 16, 1938. Titled “Encouraging savings,” it encourages the soldiers and personnel of each corps to save money, along with the workers at production and supply offices and the employees of private plants affiliated with the military.

Document 2 is issue No. 18 of Shashin Shuho, which was published on June 15, 1938. This issue was dubbed the “Patriotic Savings Issue,” and features special articles with photos encouraging citizens to save money.

Document 3 is the “Notification of 1940 National saving encouragement,” which was sent by the Director of the National Saving Encouragement Bureau to the Chief Secretary of the Privy Council on April 5, 1940. The document “1940 national saving encouragement information” was enclosed with the notification, and stipulates that the target of efforts to encourage citizens to save money was to raise a total of ¥12 billion in savings.

Document 4 is the “Notification of Director of National Saving Encouragement Bureau concerning 12 billion yen savings encouraging week,” which was sent by the Director of the National Saving Encouragement Bureau to the Chief Secretary of the Privy Council on May 22, 1940. Enclosed with this notification was the document “12 billion yen savings encouraging week implementation guideline,” which was established based on the national saving encouragement information mentioned in Document 3. It describes the specific activities that were to be carried out during “savings encouraging week” and other details. The advertisements encourage citizens to save money and help the country reach its target of ¥12 billion in savings.

       




Efforts to encourage citizens to save continued after the start of the Pacific War in December 1941, but the new targets were set even higher.


       

Document 5 is a notification sent by the Secretariat of the Army Ministry to an Army corps on February 3, 1943. This notification is in regards to the movement to emphasize the attainment of the postal savings goal of 23 billion, which is mentioned in the advertisement from issue No. 258 pictured above on the right. The document “Implementation guideline for the movement to emphasize attainment of postal savings of 23 billion,” for fiscal 1942 was enclosed with the notification, and it describes the specific activities of the campaign.


       

The savings target of ¥23 billion set out in fiscal 1942 was raised to ¥27 billion in fiscal 1943. An advertisement from issue No. 286 which states this new target is pictured above on the left. Document 6 is a document related to the special plan for attaining ¥27 billion in savings.






 

Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan