Press translations [Japan]. Editorial Series 0020, 1945-11-25.

Full Translation:

An agrarian program is now being drawn up under which the government will purchase nearly half the arable land of our country, in order to establish a system of individual small holdings. This, together with the liquidation of financial combines, is a significant first step towards a revolution of JAPAN'S economy.

The old feudal lords, or the large landowners who dwell in TOKYO, are bound to lose their lands, and even those who live on their own estates, will be allowed to possess no more than they can cultivate themselves. In fact, large landowners will no longer exist. The payment for the arable lend sold will be made in cash, and to the officially fixed price, will be added a subsidy of 150 yen per ten.

The landlords who have long received rice as farm-rent will suffer a serious loss. Judging from the present inflation it can be said that no landowners will exist hereafter.

Government securities, ineffective for ten years, will be granted to the financial combines on their liquidation. But ten years hence, no one knows what will become of those securities. They and the large landowners will fall together.

At the agricultural panic some 20 years ago the price of arable land fell under 300 yen a tan. Now, the black market price has soared to 6,000 yen or 20 times higher. In the case of rice, the black market price is 100 times as much as the official price. By comparison, the price of land is relatively low. But no land will be estimated at 1,000 yen per tan on the officially fixed price.

It is certain that the salaried class and the middle class are finding themselves sliding downhill, owing to the growing gap between their earnings in yen and the black market prices. Meanwhile, it is noticeable that the medium and small farmers are flourishing, having rice, what, and other cereals, and receiving, on the officially fixed price, the supply of daily goods for agricultural use.

We have nothing to critize if production meets the expectations of the authorities.

We cannot but hope that an agricultural clique will not be called into being, to follow the military cliques.

EDITORIAL SERIES: 20 (Continued)

Full Translation:

Since the end of the war, the volume of currency issued has increased by 10,000,000,000 yen. The value of currency has fallen greatly because of this, as can be seen in the rapid rise in the black market prices. Thus, the divergence of the official prices from the black market prices are becoming larger day by day, throwing the official price system into confusion. The Japanese economy is capitalistic, which has worked through the war until the present. The essence of a capitalistic economy is the insatiable pursuit of profit. Under this system, the smaller the chance of profit, the smaller production becomes, and the larger chance of profit the larger production becomes. The case is quite same with the Distribution of products.

The official price of rice is said to be raised to 150 yen per koku, but its black market price is ten or twenty times that amount. With such a large divergence between the official and the black market prices, the Government will never be able to stimulate the farmers to deliver at the new price. All kinds of products are being kept from coming into the market by the official prices which are fixed at too low a figure.

The supply and distribution of fertilizer is important in relieving the present food shortage. The use of one more ton of nitrogenous manure, like nitrolime and sulphate of ammonia, yields fifty more koku of rice. The plants which produced sulphate of ammonia were seriously damaged by air attacks, making the increase of production impossible at this time. Production of nitrolime can not be increased because of a shortage of coke. Charcoal can be substituted for coke but this will increase the cost of nitrolime.

The expected production of nitrolime for next year is more than, l40,000 tons, which will yield 7,000,000 koku of rice. The low official price is also checking the production of fertiliser. For this reason equipment is not fully operated and production by[illegible]use of charcoal is thereby made impossible.

This is only one example of the inefficiency of the official price system.

"The restriction of all the prices of commodities at the same ratio, whatever the level may be, will never affect production." This is the price theory of the Nazis, which was adopted by JAPAN. But the impossibility of its realization is being demonstrated by facts. Prices which were decided and fixed under pressure of the current needs resulted, in irregularities among them, putting some industries at a disadvantage. Moreover, the defects of distribution control affected the industries will to produce. They were obliged to buy materials at high black market prices.

Under this disorderly price system, the only means to extend production is by power. During the war production was increased to some degree by the absolute power of the military authorities. The enterprises strengthened their production at the risk of loss, dreaming of the lion's share after the victory. The surrender of JAPAN has weakened the power of the government and smashed industry's dream of riches.

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EDITORIAL SERIES: 20 (Continued)

ITEM 2 (Continued)

Under these circumstances the only way left is to raise the prices and wages in proportion to the fall in the currency value. The currency value, however, will continue to decline. We must compute prices on the basis of present day currency values.

The currency value is falling day by day, making the contradiction between the currency value and the official prices larger and larger. The larger the contradiction becomes, the more it will hinder production, and the more serious will be the disorder which will be caused by the ultimate revision of the current price system. Thus the establishment of a new price system is one of today's most important problems.

Summary:

Prior to the general election, the Government is .reforming the laws concerning it so that we can expect election. Moreover, a number of political parties, both old and new have determined their policies. It is vary important to the future progress of JAPAN to make the general election perfectly honest and to let the chosen party reflect public opinion exactly. A party that plays a double game can never fairly represent the popular will. The nation should not neglect to watch the pledges or behavior of the parties. On the other hand, the parties should arrange well their systems in order to justify the nation's trust in them. To this effect, every party should publish its party expenses. Such publication is essential to democracy.

In the old days of political parties, we demanded publication of party expenses for they had been degraded and corrupted by secret expenditures. Recently several parties such as the NIPPON Liberal Party, the NIPPON Social Democratic Party, the NIPPON Communist Party, and the NIPPON Progressive. Party, have been newly formed, and are facing the general election. Accordingly, they are faced with the necessity of large expenses for the campaign. Former parties had received money for their expenses by their patrons and consequently had become corrupt. To remedy such avils, the new parties should open their campaign fends to public contribution. It is desireable that, prior to the general election, any party pertending to be democratic should open its expense accounts to the nation.

It is natural that a party should be in need of funds not only at the time of election, but also at other times. Moreover, it can readily be imagined that it is very difficult to show party expenses. As a result two ways of raising funds may be determined. First, each member of a party should bear his share of the expenses according to his circumstances. As formaly, it is undesirable for a partisan to receive monetary aid from his party. On the contrary, he can contribute to the development of his party by giving monetary aid to it. Second, a member of a party is justified in receiving a gift of money from various people. It is to be desired that people have so clear political consciousness as to give monetary aid to the party representing their will. We maintain that a. party given secret funds will act for a group of individuals or in a special class, disregarding the will of the majority. Further, it may be well to raise a part of the expenses by starting some enterprise which will help the activities of the party.

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EDITORIAL SERIES: 20 (Continued)

IETM 3 (Continued)

Of course, showing party expenses formally to the public will not always clarify the party's internal condition. But if a political party does publish its expenses, it will win public confidence, and at the same time people will develop their political sense. In this manner democracy can be expected to grow.

Full Translation:

A special session of the Imperial Diet is scheduled to open soon. At that time the new JAPAN Progressive Party, the JAPAN Liberal Party and the JAPAN Socialist Party are expected to announce their platforms.

Post people, have still not decided which party to support. The platform of the JAPAN Socialist Party, aiming at the abolition of capitalism, is sure to prove attractive from the point of view of many. However, investigations reveal that the present policy of the Socialist party is not a strong one. So far, they have not revealed their attitude toward the Emperor. However, it can be assumed that since they have only mentioned abolishing the rice Council and the "Elder States men" system, they will support the Emperor. The clearly stated economic policy of the Socialist Party will doubtlessly attract many.

Therefore, the JAPAN Liberal Party and the JAPAN Progressive Party must not give the impression that they are so concerned with the abstract concept of "political freedom," that they have no program for economic freedom. This was the case with the Liberal Party and the Evolutionary Party during the [illegible]JI Era.

The policies of the JAPAN Liberal Party and the JAPAN Progressive Parties, are almost the same. Both of there parties include members whom many hold responsible for the war. SAITO Takao and KANASAKI, Katsumi of the Progressive Party are, however, above reproach.

Both Liberal and Progressive Parties favor retaining the Emperor, but this should lead no one to believe their polices are patterned after those of the [illegible]TO or S[illegible]IYUKAI Parties.

Full Translation:

The employees of the YOMIURI newspaper continue their struggle to have Japanese newspapers clarify their policy during the war as well as their responsibility for the war. However, the president of the YOMIURI denias any such responsibility. Moreover, he is prosecuting the head of the employees' comittee.

The problem has now become more than an issue of the YOMIURI or the Japanese news-paper world. It is now a problem for all JAPAN.

We believe that, this condition has become so grave that the dispute in the YOMIURI must be solved only by impartia1 observers.

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EDITORIAL SERIES: 20 (Continued)

ITEM 5 (Continued)

For a newspaper to reflect democratic practices, the employees of the paper must know their responsibility to the county. That is, to reflect the true opinions of the nation.

Many bureaucrats in the government are trying to create democracy with half way measures, and minor reforms. The YOMIURI employees are being widely supported by the general public.

But there are those who say this dispute is a communist plot designed to discredit innocent advocates of democracy. The struggle of the YOMIURI employees is different from the labor disputes of the past. Their impartial attitude must be noticed. They know paper is vital to the public welfare and want to continue to publish, even throughout the dispute. This can well be contrasted to the methods of the bureaucratic and financial cliques who ignore the nation's present distress.

Those who preach democracy, and yet in fact try to restrain or appress JAPAN are the worst traitors in JAPAN today.

Recently more than thirty political parties, large and small, were created for the general election. One, for example, is called the "WORKING SERVICE PARTY" another is the "REVOLUTIONARY PARTY", but the nation can hardly distinguish between them. What attitudes do these parties take toward the Japanese democratic revolution? Do they really look upon the YOMIURI employees' dispute as one link in the Japanese movement for democracy? The COMMUNIST and SOCIALIST PARTIES already offered their support to the YOMIURI employees. This is natural for these two parties for they frankly advocate a Japanese democratic revolution. But what is the attitude of the LIBERAL PARTY and of the PROGRESSIVE PARTY? we wonder why these two parties have not yet classified their positions.

DISTRIBUTION "X"

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