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CHAPTER X

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

Outline of Topics: Local government under feudalism; periods of modern local self-government; gradual development therein; prefectural assemblies; candidates and electors; standing committee; sessions; business; speaking; petitions; how bills become laws; powers of prefectural assemblies, theoretical and practical; residents and citizens of cities, towns, and villages; rights and duties of citizens; administration in city, town, and village; city council; town and village officials; city assembly; assemblymen; powers of city assembly; town or village assembly; special provisions for towns and villages; administration of territories; pacification of Formosa; colonial government; policy in Formosa; political progress in Japan.—Bibliography.

We have already noted incidentally in preceding chapters some of the steps in the development of local self-government in Japan; and now we must treat that subject more particularly. First it is well to observe in passing that the steps from feudalism to local self-government were not so difficult as might be imagined; for under the feudal system local government by clans had prevailed.[1] And yet when feudalism was abolished, the reconstruction of local government was entered upon slowly and cautiously in order to minimize jealousies and other obstacles.

  1. ↑ See valuable papers by Simmons and Wigmore in Transactions Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xix. pp. 37-270, and vol. xx., Supplement, part i., pp. 41-62.
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