Economics in Japan has evolved through two main paths: political economy and neoclassical economics. Political economists were influenced by the idea of governing the nation and helping the people. Traditional schools like the German Historical School and Marxian economics held sway until the 1960s. Neoclassical and Keynesian economics emerged in the 1930s, with some economists making significant contributions to general equilibrium, welfare economics, and trade theory in the 1950s.