Down the Rabbit Hole: A Study in the Political Economy of Modern Japan*.

The article discusses economic ideas and policies in Japan in the late nineteenth century, focusing on a boom in rabbit trading in the 1870s and laissez-faire economics. It examines the rise in rabbits' popularity and prices. The author comments on government intervention following the growth in crime and social disorder related to rabbit trading, which included banning organizations known as rabbit associations, or usagi kai, as well as taxing the trade. He also comments on the idea that rabbits were involved in a cholera epidemic that hit Japan in 1877.