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Neighborhood Associations in Japan and Their Democratic Potentialities*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Ralph J. D. Braibanti
Ralph J. D. Braibanti
Affiliation:
Syracuse University
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Extract

The Life and thoughts of every subject of the Emperor of Japan have been guided at every point by an incredibly meticulous officialdom. Accepted as a truism in Occidental discussions, this miracle has escaped critical analysis. That aspect of Japanese governance which through sumptuary laws and minatory regulations grinds so exceedingly small that everything in the life of the individual conforms to authoritative patterns merits detailed analysis.

During the war of 1941–1945, with a minimum transfer of effective authority to local governments, the Imperial Government was able so completely to control its subjects that the pull of a string in Tokyo produced a response from any one or all of the 73 million rippana nihonjin from Hokkaido to Kyushu. The degree to which the wartime controls of the Japanese Government were efficient and effective was due in part to the psychological homogeneity of the Japanese people. To no lesser extent was it due to the centralized nature of Japanese government, to those institutions and techniques peculiar to Japanese life which have tended to concentrate authority in the central government.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , February 1948 , pp. 136 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1948

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References

1 The governments of prefectures, cities, and towns had a small degree of local determination, which, when compared with similar echelons of government in the United States, is negligible. Some observers have believed that the reorganization of Japanese Government into nine administrative regions in January 1943 (abolished in November 1945) gave greater autonomy to the local levels. There is no observable evidence to support this conclusion. The organization into regions resulted in no actual transfer of effective operative powers among units of government. Its purpose was to integrate a homogeneous economic area for purposes of a better-planned economy.

2 For an analysis of Japanese homogeneity see Haring, Douglas G., ed., Japan's prospect, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1946), 6. Note 4 on pp. 251–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar gives a definition of homogeneity as used in this connection.

3 In April 1947 the first election for prefectural governors in the history of Japan was held. This election was provided for by Chapter 8, Article 89 of the 1946 Constitution and by election laws promulgated under the aegis of the American Military Government in Japan.

4 The “Six Great Cities” of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, and Kobe have an organization somewhat different from that of other cities. Tokyo is a tō and ranks as a prefecture with a governor in charge. Osaka and Kyoto are fu () or urban prefectures on the same level as a ken. These six cities are divided into ku for administrative and postal purposes.

5 Embree, John F. (Suye-mura: a Japanese village [University of. Chicago Press, 1939])Google Scholar gives a description of local organizations in Japan; see especially pp. 22,113. A parallel study Tōgōmura: a village in northern Japan (New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, 1939) by Hideo Nishikiori gives a good description of rural buraku.Google Scholar

6 For good organizational charts of administrative subdivisions see U.S. Department of State, Administrative subdivisions of Japan (Publication no. 2749, Far Eastern series no. 19, Reproduction Branch, 1946).

7 See Haring, Douglas C., “Apsects of Japanese character,” Far Eastern quarterly, 6 (November 1946), 12–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 The naiveté of the American occupation forces in assuming that the status of the Emperor has been changed by the Imperial Rescript of January 1, 1916, is unfortunate. See Holtom, Daniel C., “The ‘new’ emperor,” Far Eastern survey, March 13, 1916.Google Scholar

9 Hulse, Frederick S., “A sketch of Japanese society,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 66 (1946), 219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 The police are ubiquitous representatives of the government. The police system is an Imperial system administered by the Police Bureau (Keiho Kyoku ) of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Police control extends to every individual. After the occupation, the police lost some of their functions, and their prestige and power decreased. For example, the police no longer supervise the compulsory house cleanings which was formerly one of their chief duties and principal sources of graft money.

11 Asakawa, Kan-ichi, “Notes on village government in Japan,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 31 (1911), 192–215Google Scholar. In these 24 pages Dr. Asakawa gives a remarkably detailed account of the family groups in China. The author had the privilege of talking with Professor Asakawa at Yale University in May 1916 on this subject.

12 Asakawa, Kan-ichi, The early institutional life of Japan (Tokyo: Waseda University, 1903), 275.Google Scholar

13 Sansom, George B., A short cultural history of Japan (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943), 170.Google Scholar

14 Murdoch, James A., History of Japan (New York: Greenberg, 1926), vol. 3, p. 47.Google Scholar

15 Ministry of Home Affairs, Administrative Memorandum no. 91, Guide for reorganization kai and chōnai-kai, September 11, 1940.

16 Ministry of Home Affairs, Administrative Memorandum no. 17, Reorganization of burakukai and chōnai-kai, September 11, 1940.

17 United States Army Service Forces Manual M354–2, Civil affairs handbook: Japan, section 2, government and administration (Washington: War Department Printing Office, 1945), 231 ff.Google Scholar

18 Ministry of Home Affairs and other Ministries, Joint Administrative Memorandum no. 250, The integration of the chōnai-kai as the basic unit of consumption, October 29, 1942.

19 Embree, op. cit., p. 26.

20 Nishikiori, op. cit., p. 85.

21 Ministry of Home Affairs, Administrative Memorandum no. 413, Supervision of finances of chōnai-kai and buraku-kai, November 1, 1941.

22 Administrative Memorandum no. 91, op. cit.

23 Ministry of Welfare, Administrativé Memorandum no. 165, Integration of hōmen-iin with chōnai-kai and buraku-kai, November 19, 1941.

24 On October 19, 1946, in an effort to improve the welfare system without reviving the almost defunct tonari-gumi organization, the Welfare Ministry scrapped the hōmen-iin plan and adopted a system using minsei-iin . The minsei-iin were paid welfare workers who had smaller areas of responsibility than the old hōmen-iin.

25 For a summary of the work of the agricultural societies see: U.S. War Department, Civil affairs guide: agricultural associations in Japan (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1945). War Department pamphlet no. 31–11.Google Scholar

26 In October 1943 the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry were united to form the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. In the present government the ministries have again been separately established and exist as they were prior to October, 1943.

27 Suffrage was extended to women only after the Japanese Government was compelled to extend the suffrage in the 1946 Constitution. Women voted for the first time in Japanese history in the election of April 1946.

28 Kinro-hōshitai is a wartime adaptation of the ancient rural custom variously known as yuhi ( and kalian ) For further description of this custom as it operated in other villages see Embree, op. cit., pp. 132–38 and Nishikiori, op. cit., p. 61.

29 Tonari-gumi is no longer used as the agency for the distribution of rations according to a letter dated September 16, 1947, to the writer from Mr. Susumu Nara of Kōfu, Yamanashi. With the passing of this activity the status of the neighborhood association is the same as it was during the period prior to 1940.

30 For a brilliant and provocative defense of a policy of negativity in Germany, Italy, and Japan see Smith, Thomas V., “American democracy: expendable and exportable,” Virginia quarterly review, 23 (Spring, 1947), 161–78Google Scholar. Although not directly indicated by the title this article is an especially challenging approach to problems of military government.

31 This is not to say that no efforts have been or are being made by SCAP to educate the Japanese people in these matters. On the contrary considerable work in this connection is being done. Its effectiveness is here questioned, however, because it does not reach the taproot of the Japanese nation and does not reflect a respect for or an understanding of Japanese institutional life.

32 For a complete discussion of this view as an objective of military government see Gabriel, Ralph Henry, “Military government and the will of the victors,” Virginia quarterly review, 21 (Summer 1945), 331–40.Google Scholar

33 Brigadier General C. Whitney, Chief of the Government Section of SCAP, indicated that he was aware of the existence of two points of view with regard to the tonari-gumi — the belief that it could be converted to our use, and the fear that it was a potential threat to our efforts. This latter point of view is expressed by Masland, John W. in his article on “Neighborhood associations in Japan,” Far Eastern survey, Nov. 20, 1946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34 General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied powers, General orders no. 4, civil information and education section, 2 October 1945, states that one purpose of the CI&E section is “to insure their [the Japanese] understanding of all policies and plans for political, economic and social rehabilitation of Japan and Korea.”

35 For an account of the influence of bureaucracy on the administration of the Imperial Government see Esman, Milton J., “Japanese administration,” Public administration review, 7 (Spring, 1917) 100–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Maki, John M., “The role of the bureaucracy in Japan,” Pacific affairs, 20 (Dec. 1947), 391–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 The impossibility as well as the undesirability of imposing a form of government on a dissimilar culture is a truism so well established as to make its mention here superfluous. Among Americans in Japan, however, there exists so persistently and so universally the idea that Japan must be remade in the image and likeness of the United States that there may be some merit to exposing this point of view. The idea of the need for harmony between the milieu and the governmental structure has been clearly established by Rousseau in his Social contract and Bryce in his Modern democracies. For a provocative discussion of this question see Chapter 7 by Professor Haring and Chapter 10 by Professor F. M. Watkins in Haring, Japan's prospect.