Editing Shigeru Yoshida (section)

===Dodge Line===
[[File:Hayato Ikeda meets Joseph Dodge.jpg|thumb|left|[[Joseph Dodge]] meets Finance Minister [[Hayato Ikeda]] in 1949.]]
{{Main|Dodge Line}}
In February after the election, [[Joseph Dodge]] arrived in Japan as financial adviser to SCAP with a mission to stabilize the Japanese economy, which was suffering from rampant inflation and other problems. The [[Dodge Line]], as the plan advocated by Dodge would be called, prescribed strict austerity measures that significantly curtailed public spending and government subsidies.{{sfn|Park|2011|pp=61-65}}{{sfn|Metzler|2013|pp=120-122}}

Yoshida appointed Hayato Ikeda finance minister later the same month. Although Yoshida and Ikeda had apprehensions about the Dodge Line, they had no choice but to implement occupation policy. The plan was successful in ending hyperinflation, but it also caused severe short-term hardship. The decreased money supply led to a wave of bankruptcies and increased unemployment. Furthermore, spending cuts necessitated mass layoffs in the public sector.{{sfn|Park|2011|pp=61-65}}{{sfn|Metzler|2013|pp=122-124}}{{sfn|Metzler|2013|pp=128}}

This situation continued until the outbreak of the [[Korean War]] in June 1950. The war led to an economic boom stimulated by demand for goods and services from Japan by the American forces in Korea. Yoshida described this as a ”gift from the gods.”{{sfn|Dower|1988|p=424}}