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Some Observations on Local Autonomy at the Village Level in Present-day Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Robert E. Ward
Robert E. Ward
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

These recent years have brought to Japan an array of new political institutions and procedures. If judged by the contents of the statute books alone, there would appear to be small resemblance between the basic legal structure and concepts of the prewar Japanese state and those of the present. The theoretic status of the emperor has been fundamentally altered, a new constitution of highly suspect paternity has appeared, civil rights have been accorded recognition and formal protection, and a system of government noted for its centralization and authoritarianism has been subjected to decentralization and democratization. All these are the works of the Occupation or, to be more precise, of the Japanese Government acting as a result of the directives or “suggestions” of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP).

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , February 1953 , pp. 183 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1953

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References

1 See, for example, General Arthur's, Douglas Mac “Statement on the Diet's Passage of Local Government Reforms,” September 20, 1946, in SCAP, Government Section, Political reorientation of Japan (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1949), vol. 2, p. 758Google Scholar; or ibid, vol. 1, p. 260.

2 It is, of course, recognized that case studies of this sort do not constitute definitive evidence of the nationwide validity of their findings. No such claim is intended. It is believed, however, that findings of conditions quite at variance with those implied in the above described type of official statement serve both to raise serious questions as to the accuracy of the latter and to indicate the wisdom of suspending final judgment pending further examination of the problem.

3 Between the Restoration (1867) and this date the legal status of villages underwent a number of changes which are now relatively unimportant save for purely historical purposes. Tatsukichi, Minobe in his Nihonkoku kempō genron (Principles of the Jappanese constitution), Tōkyō, Yuhikaku, 1948, pp. 476–77Google Scholar, provides a brief description of developments during these years.

4 Tamon, Maeda, Chihō jichi no hanashi (Remarks on local autonomy), Tōkyō, Asahi Shimbunsha, 1930, pp. 47–49 and 51–52.Google Scholar

5 The official text in Japanese may be found in Hiroshi, Suekawa, Roppō zensho (Compendium of the six codes), Tōkyō, Iwanami Shoten, 1950, pp. 1–47Google Scholar of the local government section. An official English translation is given in Political reorientation of Japan, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 902–59. There have since been a number of amendments which are not shown in the English text but these have made no major changes.

6 Government Ordinance No. 16 of May 3, 1947 as amended. The text may be found in the Roppō zensho, op. cit., pp. 48–72.

7 An English version of the ten may be found in Local Autonomy Agency, Local Finance Commission, Local tax law (Tōkyō, 1950), pp. 1–379.Google Scholar

8 The text of these last two laws is given in Roppō zensho, op. cit., pp. 79–84 and 112–118.

9 Certain classes of financial and tax legislation are exempted from the operation of this popular initiative process. See Article 74 of the Local Autonomy Law, All subsequent references to articles by number are to this law unless some other law is specified.

10 This is well demonstrated by Kada Tetsuji, particularly in Part I, chapters 1 and 3 of his Shakaishi (Social history), Tōkyō, Tōyō Keizai Shimpōsha, 1940. This is vol. 11 of the Gendai Nihon bummeishi (Cultural history of modern Japan).

11 for a more expansive development of this theme, see a recent article by the writer entitled, “The socio-political role of the buraku (hamlet) in Japan,” in the American Political Science Review, vol. XLV, no. 4 (Dec. 1951), pp. 1036–38.Google Scholar

12 See Article 96.

13 The document itself, however, is not too conducive to intelligent analysis and criticism because of the fact that all figures given for either revenue or expenditures are merely estimates. Thus, although a village budget for the fiscal year 1949 will carefully give comparative revenue and expenditure figures for fiscal 1948, the 1948 figures as well as those for 1949 are only estimates. Firm figures are normally not available for the past fiscal year for three of four months after its conclusion.

14 See a recent article by the writer, entitled, “The socio-political role of the buraku (hamlet) in Japan,” op. ciu, pp. 1030–31, for an extended explanation of the functioning and importance of this process.

15 As of the current crop year only rice is requisitioned, although in the recent past, barley, wheat, rape seed, soy beans, potatoes and other vegetables were also included in the program.

16 Roppō zensho, op. cit., section on Administration, p. 51.

17 This statement ignores for lack of space the not infrequent cases where mayors are largely honorary officials and their powers are actually wielded by members of their professional staff.

18 The initial report was issued in English and Japanese by GHQ, SCAP in four volumes at Tōkyō” in September 1949. A supplement entitled, Second report on Japanese taxation by the Shoup Mission, also in Japanese and English, has been published by the Nihon Sozei Kenkyŭ Kyōkai (Japan Tax Association) at Tōkyō in 1950, 92 pp.

19 Report on Japanese taxation, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 21.