Nobuo Okishio

Japan state institutions Academic Marxism 1927.1.2.–2003.11. ○ Natural causes

Japanese mathematical Marxian economist who proved the Fundamental Marxian Theorem and the Okishio theorem

Born in Kobe, the son of a shopkeeper, Okishio graduated from Kobe University of Economics in 1950 and became an assistant at the new Kobe University. Trained in mathematical economics under Kazuo Mizutani, he came to doubt the premises of modern economics and turned to Marxian economics. In 1955 he gave the first proof that the exploitation of surplus labour is the necessary condition for positive profit, which Michio Morishima named the Fundamental Marxian Theorem. In 1961 he showed that, with the real wage constant, cost-reducing technical change raises the general rate of profit; the Okishio theorem became the centre of the debate on the falling rate of profit. He was professor at Kobe University from 1964 to 1990 and president of the Japan Association of Economics and Econometrics in 1979.