12 Furthermore, while Koshihikari is now a byword for delicious rice, efforts were needed to overcome many difficulties to get to that point.13  Another significant advantage is that the prefecture is close to the growing economies of northeast Asia. It has close historical relations with regions on the opposite shores, such as the Russian Far East, China, and the Korean Peninsula.
Major financial problems also remained, including both large government debts from the war and banking systems whose solvency had been deeply compromised by the war and by the periods of hyperinflation that followed in a number of countries. These underlying problems created stresses for the gold standard that had not existed to the same degree before the war.