Political and economic research regarding oligarchy in Japan in the 20th century: a survey from the biography of former Emperor Hirohito

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K12160
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Library and information science/Humanistic social informatics
• Research Institution: Nagoya University
• Principal Investigator: Masuda Tomoko 名古屋大学, 法学(政治学)研究科(研究院), 教授 (10183104)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): KAKUTA Tokuyasu 名古屋大学, 大学院法学研究科, 特任教授 (80292001) ; NAKAMURA Makoto 名古屋大学, 大学院法学研究科, 特任助教 (50377438) ; SANO Tomoya 名古屋大学, 大学院法学研究科, 特任助教 (30419428)
• Research Collaborator: OGAWA Yasuhiro 名古屋大学, 情報基盤センター, 准教授 (70332707)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 寡頭政 / 昭和天皇実録 / 天皇制 / 社会ネットワーク

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research project, based on the information extracted from the biography of former Emperor Hirohito (Showa-Tennou-Jitsuroku), analyzes the authoritarian regime centered around the former emperor and its transformation from the Meiji to the postwar period.
(a) This research formulated text data from the Emperor's biography and extracted the name and title of the individuals who were presented at Court. As a result, we could extract the names and titles of 44,322 presentees. A look at the list reveals that Imperial Princes, Lord Keepers of the Privy Seal, and Ministers of the Imperial Household were frequently granted an audience to the former emperor. Also, we tabulated monthly data showing the number of meetings with the the former emperor by each person from 1941 to 1944 and found that this data may reveal an aspect of some historical events during the period. (b) Associated with the project (a), we built a retrieval database of the legal news (Houritsu-Shinbun).

Free Research Field

日本政治史