1999 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The Problems of the Administration and Politics in Districts in 1920's - 1950's Japan, the Establishment, Reorganization and Abolishment of the District Branch Offices of Prefectural Governments
| Project/Area Number |
10620069
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Politics
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| Research Institution | Hiroshima University |
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Principal Investigator |
MORIBE Seiichi Hiroshima University, Faculty of Law, Professor, 法学部, 教授 (50210183)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1998 – 1999
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| Keywords | Local Administration / Branch Office of Prefectural Government / Local Politics / Wartime Mobilization / Wartime Administration |
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| Research Abstract |
I've carried out research into the establishment, reorganization and abolishment of the District Branch Offices of Prefectural Governments (DBOPG) in Japan.
The District Autonomy System was abolished in 1923, and the District Chief Administrator and his office was abolished in 1926. These abolishments made control by the central government, especially Ministry of Domestic Affairs, over local autonomies of cities, towns and villages weak, and made autonomy of local governments strong and wide. After that, the Prefectural Governors organized the meeting of mayors, chiefs of towns and chives of villages in each prefecture and tried to keep modest control over the local governrnents .
As the war between China and Japan escalated, Japanese central government wanted to strengthen the control over the local government, especially cities, towns and villages. So the Ministry of Domestic affairs directed to establish the District Branch Offices of Prefectural Government in 1942 to mobilize people
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and resources towards the war in spite of objection among the mayors and chiefs of local autonomies.
At first, Ministry of Domestic affairs declared that the chief of DBOPG had no legal power to control or order to the local autonomies. But the ministry sent a direction to the Governors of prefectural governments that the governors must give the chiefs of DBOPG some of their power implicitly. The chiefs started to act in place of the governor. After the Pearl Harbour, the power that the chiefs of DBOPG were given was increasingly widen and strengthen.
After the defeat of Japan, General Head Quarters of Japanese Occupation commanded to Japanese government to democratize and decentralize all over the Japanese political and administration system. But the Reform of democratization and decentralization was done under the control of central government and GHQ. Ironically, DBOPG kept their wartime power and supervised the Post War Reform of local autonomy to democratize and decentralize local governments. Less
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Research Products
(4 results)
