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Tax Reform as Social Policy: Adjusting to change in interwar Japan*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2012

ANDREA REVELANT
ANDREA REVELANT*
Affiliation:
Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice Email: revelant@unive.it
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Abstract

In the wide domain of finance, taxation is one of the issues to which public opinion is most sensitive. This paper explores why tax reform was hotly debated in Japan throughout the 1920s, focusing on the policies of the two main political parties. Though a topic rarely treated by historians, this controversy reveals a wealth of information on the concerns that lay behind policy choices in years that were marked by economic instability and social unrest; it shows, in particular, how the ruling elites tried to attenuate class conflict by enhancing the redistributive function of taxes, which had thus far been subordinated to the encouragement of rapid economic growth and the financing of state investment. While these attempts deserve attention as tentative steps towards the development of a welfare state, their limits indicate that the parties, in spite of extending the suffrage during this period, retained strong links with a restricted network of established constituents. This paper dwells especially on the earliest and least studied phase of the dispute on tax reform, in order to prove that the emergence of distinct party platforms did not stem simply from tactical considerations, but was rooted in broader policy visions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , May 2013 , pp. 851 - 894
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

The research for this paper was supported by a two-year scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education and a short-term grant from Ca’ Foscari. I am particularly grateful for advice from Costas Lapavitsas, Gotō Shin'ichi, and the two anonymous referees.

References

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33 Quoted in Higuchi, Kenseikai-shi, Vol. 2, p. 370.

34 See Metzler, Lever, pp. 240–45, 248–52; Smethurst, R., From Foot Soldier to Finance Minister (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007), pp. 251–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 262–67.

35 Metzler, Lever, pp. 118–24. For a rather harsh judgement, see Mochizuki, Taishō, p. 171. A sympathetic appraisal can be found in Smethurst, From Foot Soldier, pp. 218–19.

36 NTTN (1920), p. 121.

37 For a detailed synthesis, see Fujitani, K.Wagakuni saikin no chiso mondai (Ōsaka: Ōsaka shōka daigaku keizai kenkyūjo, 1932), pp. 67–97Google Scholar. The bibliography provides a good selection of the vast prewar production. The postwar literature is discussed in Ikegami, T. ‘Ryōzei ijō mondai no igi wo megutte’, Keizaigaku, 47 (4) 1986a, pp. 87–102Google Scholar. See also Ikeda, J. ‘Seitō naikakuka no futatsu no chihō zeisei kaikaku to kanryō’, in kenkyūkai, Nihon gendaishi (ed.) 1920 nendai no Nihon no seiji (Ōtsuki shobō, 1984), pp. 111–52Google Scholar. Part of the debate is treated in Takayose, Taishō, pp. 157–84.

38 See Ōkurashō, Shōwa, Vol. 5, pp. 492–590; Vol. 14, pp. 229–50; Shiomi, Japan's Finance, pp. 33–52.

39 See Kanazawa, ‘Ryōzei’, pp. 115–16; Miyazaki, R. ‘Taishō demokurashiiki no nōson to seitō (3)’, Kokka gakkai zasshi, 93–11/12, 1980, pp. 99–101Google Scholar.

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49 Related documents are to be found in NA as Rinji zaisei keizai chōsakai shorui, 2A-36 委265–294. Relevant to this paper are: 5. Shimon daigogō tokubetsu iinkai kaigiroku (hereafter TIK); 13.1. Daiyonkai sōkai giji sokkiroku shimon daigogō daiichi (SGS1); 13.2–5. Sōkai giji sokkiroku shimon dai gogō dai ni-dai go (SGS2–5); and 14. Rinji zaisei keizai chōsakai yōran ji daiichigō shi daigogō (CY1–5). For documents without numbered pages, ‘s’ will indicate the number of the microfilm slide.

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54 Ikegami, ‘Daiichiji’, p. 45; TA, 2 June 1920. Appointments are recorded in CY1, pp. 11–14; CY3, pp. 5–7, 299; CY4, pp. 40–41; TIK, s962. CY3 contains a summary of the agenda and the final report. A printed version of the minutes in TIK is stored as Zeisei seiri tokubetsu iinkai gijiroku, Kokuritsu zeimu daigakkō (National Tax College), Wakō, Shōwa 53-honkō-1426; hereafter TIKb. Parts omitted in the former document appear in the latter, and vice versa. Copies of the report are at the National Tax College as Zeisei seirian, Shōwa 53-honkō-1427; Heisei 12-Tōkyō-167–1/2. The full text was published in Ōkurashō, Meiji, Vol. 6, pp. 383–526; with some omissions in Takahashi, K.Zaisei keizai nijūgonenshi (Jitsugyō no sekaisha, 1932), Vol. 5, pp. 281–380Google Scholar.

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56 SGS1, p. 3.

57 SGS1, pp. 1–2. The alternatives are compared in CY3, pp. 19–86.

58 CY3, p. 23.

59 See Kanbe in TIKb, p. 122 (14 April 1921); Yokoi in TIK, s999 (21 April 1921); Matsumoto in TIK, s1029 (21 July 1921). This estimate can be reconstructed by combining a rice price of 30 yen/koku, as reasonably requested in TIKb, p. 23 (1 October 1920), with data on productivity and gross/net income ratio on a three-year average (used to assess the tax on agricultural income). See Ōkurashō shuzei kyoku, Zeisei chōsa iinkai shorui, NTC, Heisei-10-honkō-1893, 1923, p. 153.

60 ‘Denpata baibai kakaku’, Teikoku nōkaihō, 11–9, 1921, p. 66.

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62 CY3, pp. 86–93, 102–12.

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65 As in TA, 19 July 1922. Growing scepticism can be traced through earlier editorials on 14 May 1921; 9 June 1921; 2, 15 July 1921; 11 December 1921; 30 April 1922; 10 May 1922.

66 See Sakairi, Nihon, Vol. 3, pp. 94–104; Mochizuki, Taishō, pp. 219–37.

67 TA, 30 April 1922.

68 See Shimizu, Seitō, pp. 204–14; Yui, M. ‘Bunkan nin'yōrei kaisei mondai to Sūmitsuin’, in Yui, M. (ed.), Sūmitsuin no kenkyū (Yoshikawa kōbunkan, 2003), pp. 69–74Google Scholar.

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70 TIK, s1084 (27 April 1922).

71 TIK, s1047–9 (6 October 1921).

72 TIKb, pp. 381–92 (27 April 1922).

73 TA, 11 June 1921.

74 See Kanazawa's remarks on how debate continued through the decade (in ‘Ryōzei’, p. 133).

75 TIK, s1084 (27 April 1922).

76 Takahashi in TG, Vol. 41, p. 14 (21 January 1922).

77 Kanazawa, ‘Ryōzei’, p. 83.

78 See Ikeda, ‘Seitō’, pp. 135–38; Tanaka, S., ‘Meiji chihō jichi no henbō oyobi saihen to ryōzei ijō mondai’, Ibaraki daigaku seikei gakkai zasshi, 36, 1976, pp. 11–27Google Scholar.

79 Reported in TA, 17 June 1921.

80 SGS5 (20 July 1922), pp. 154–58.

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82 SGS5, p. 155.

83 See Taikakai, Naimushō-shi, Vol. 2, pp. 178–80, 330, 336–37.

84 NTTN (1939), p. 364.

85 See Hara, Hara, Vol. 8, pp. 351, 376–77, 483, 489; Vol. 9, p. 131 (13 October 1919; 6 November 1919; 11, 18 February 1920; 12 November 1920).

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91 See Table in CY3, p. 34; Kanbe's notes in TIKb, p. 124 (14 April 1921).

92 Kizaka, J. ‘Kakushin kurabu ron’, in Inoue, K. (ed.), Taishō-ki no seiji to shakai (Iwanami shoten, 1969), p. 322Google Scholar.

93 TIK, s999, s1028, s1081 (21 April 1921, 14 July 1921, 20 April 1922); ‘Zaisanzei ni tsuite’, Teikoku nōkaihō, 12, 1922, pp. 2–8, 10. See also Andō, K. ‘Zeisei no seiri to nōka no futan ni tsuite’, Teikoku nōkaihō, 11, 1921, pp. 7, 2–8Google Scholar.

94 The author also concludes that, after partial transfer, the land tax would have been decreased by 8.1 million yen. However, this is because the devolved amount is mistaken there for the residual land tax amount. See Kanazawa, ‘Ryōzei’, pp. 103–06.

95 TIK, s1043 (29 September 1921). On the vigorous protest waged by business associations in 1920, see, for example, TA, 18 June 1920, 23 June 1920, 27 June 1920.

96 As noted in Ikegami, ‘Daiichiji’, p. 58.

97 See Kanbe in TA, 1 July 1921; in TIK, s1041 (29 September 1921); Baba in SGS5, p. 141.

98 Kanazawa, ‘Ryōzei’, p. 110.

99 See Ishigami, R. Hara Takashi botsugo (Chūō kōronsha, 1960).

100 TA, 11 November 1923. See also ‘Ijō no ganmoku wa seiri setsuyaku’, Ekonomisuto, 1, 1923, pp. 5, 9.

101 On the latter, see Mochizuki, Taishō, pp. 163–71; Sakairi, Nihon, Vol. 3, pp. 81–82. On armament reduction in the 1920s, see Asada, S. ‘Nihon kaigun to gunshuku’, in Hosoya, C. and Saitō, M. (eds), Washinton taisei to Nichibei kankei (Tōkyō daigaku shuppankai, 1978), pp. 353–414Google Scholar; Takahashi, H. ‘Rikugun gunshuku no zaisei to seiji’, in kenkyūkai, Kindai Nihon, Kanryōsei no keisei to tenkai (Yamakawa shuppansha, 1986), pp. 143–83Google Scholar.

102 See Matsuo, T.Futsū senkyo seido seiritsu no kenkyū (Iwanami shoten, 1958, reprinted 1989), p. 231Google Scholar; Maeda, Tokonami, pp. 626–27.

103 Interview quoted in Imamura, T., Takahashi Korekiyo (Jiji tsūshinsha, 1958, reprinted 1985), pp. 114–16Google Scholar; partially translated in Smethurst, From Foot Soldier, pp. 229–30. See also TA, 19 January 1923. Maeda, Tokonami, p. 635; Sakaguchi, J.Noda taikai den (Noda taikai den kankōkai, 1929), pp. 742–43Google Scholar; sensei denki hensankai, Yamamoto Tatsuoand Kosaka, J. (eds), Yamamoto Tatsuo (Yamamoto Tatsuo sensei denki hensankai, 1951), p. 438Google Scholar.

104 Tanaka Ryūzō in TIK, s999 (21 April 1921), 1027 (14 July 1921), 1035 (15 September 1921), 1037 (22 September 1921), 1081 (20 April 1922); Takahashi Mitsutake in TIK, s1029–30 (21 July 1921), 1033 (12 September 1921); Hatano Shōgorō in TIK, s1038 (22 September 1921).

105 Itō, Y.Taishō demokurashii to seitō seiji, 2nd edition (Yamakawa shuppansha, 1998), pp. 108–13Google Scholar.

106 ‘Sankō shiryō dai nanagō’, pp. 1–10. On the committee, see Matsuo, Futsū, pp. 234–37, 255–56.

107 This is admitted by Secretary Matsumoto in SGS3, s539.

108 ‘Hōkoku’ (19 June 1923) in Shūgiin giin, p. 2; ‘2. Senkyoken ni kansuru chōsa shiryō’, in Shūgiin giin, pp. 27–28, 34.

109 TG, Vol. 42, p. 140 (3 February 1923).

110 TG, Vol. 42, p. 135. Discussion at pp. 136–42. See also kyoku, Shūgiin jimu, Teikoku gikai Shūgiin iin kaigiroku (Kyōto: Shūgiin jimu kyoku, 1923, reprinted 1986), Vol. 37, pp. 71–80Google Scholar (16, 20 February 1923).

111 ‘Chiso ijō ni kansuru gokai wo teisu’, Seiyū, 266, 1923, pp. 7–11; TIKb, pp. 381–82.

112 Documents were later collected as kyoku, Ōkurashō shuzei, Zeisei chōsa iinkai shorui. A summary of meetings was published monthly in Teikoku nōkaihō, 13 (7) 1923, pp. 7, 54–56Google Scholar; 13 (8), pp. 31–32; 13 (9), 31–32; 13 (10), pp. 35–36.

113 Itō, Taishō demokurashii, p. 113.

114 Ikeda, ‘Seitō’, pp. 140–44.

115 Kato, J., The Problem of Bureaucratic Rationality (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.