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The Political Structure of a Japanese Village1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Paul S. Dull
Paul S. Dull
Affiliation:
University of Oregon
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Extract

The basic unit for economic and social activities in rural Japan is the buraku, a cluster of houses, surrounding rice fields, and, very often, a small acreage of forest land. Although the buraku has had no legal status, since the war, it remains as the focus of loyalty and in-group feeling beyond the level of the household. It is within the buraku that the Japanese farmers cooperate with each other to meet and to solve their immediate problem. The lowest level of formal government in the farming countryside is the mura or son (village). It is at this point of contact that the Japanese farmer as a buraku inhabitant meets government in the actual administration of law. The Japanese farmer regards village administration in two ways. On the one hand, it provides him with formal machinery for the solution of the immediate and personal problems he faces in his community.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , February 1954 , pp. 175 - 190
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1954

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References

2 See Robert E. Ward, ”The socio-political role of the buraku (hamlet) in Japan,” in the American Political Science Review, vol. XLV, no. 4 (Dec. 1951).

3 Village is the standard translation for , mura or son. Confusion is caused by the English equivalents for buraku and son. The buraku is a village in a sociological sense; the son is an administrative term for which township or county would be a better translation.

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8 In interviewing Katayama Ken of Suenaga-buraku about why he voted as he did in the last election, he stated that he voted for Namba against his two opponents because Namba had no yakuba experience and his two opponents did. Katayama wanted to see new faces in the yakuba. This sentiment was found to be widespread among fanners interviewed.

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10 The farmer's complaints shifted from emphasis upon the amount of foodstuffs that he must produce and sell to the government at a price fixed well below the consumer's price to emphasis upon the lowness of the price. Today, the government gives about a 50 per cent higher price to farmers for produce that they sell to the government above their quota. Consequently, the farmer has become concerned with lowering his quota and increasing the price for each category. In essence, kyoshutsu is turning into a farm subsidy problem.

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13 These regular taxes (haifukin and hojokin) are examined carefully by the Ken Local Tax Office and the uses to which they are put by the local autonomous bodies are investigated and, if disapproved, the money must be returned. There is, however, no ken interference within the yakuba before the actual expenditure of the money.

14 See Robert E. Ward, “Some observations on local autonomy at the village level in present-day Japan,” in the Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. XII, no. 2 (Feb. 1953).

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26 One informant told a research worker from the University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies at Okayama City that the women often went to the kōkaidō during this period to see that the men, often intoxicated, did not set fire to the place.

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32 Kacayama Tokicato of Suenaga-buraku, an informant, expressed it when he said that no one could be elected who sought the office.

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34 An example of this was told a research worker from the University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies at Okayama City. The sonchō recommended raises for the yakuba personnel. The songikai granted the money, but passed a resolution that the attitude of the yakuba personnel toward the public had not been very courteous or kind of late, and that the money granted would be withheld for several months to see if their attitude changed.