Press translations [Japan]. Editorial Series 0028, 1945-11-29.

Full translation:

According to the Government figures, there are 600,000 unemployed in TOKYO alone and perhaps over 10,000,000 throughout the country. Despite the fact that there is an extreme shortage of vital goods and food, there is still an excessive number of unemployed. What measures is the Government taking to correct this situation?

The Government which had complained of a manpower shortage during the war evidently must have understood the economic principle that manpower is the basis of production. In the face of this great unemployment, war-damaged areas have not yet been cleared or cultivated properly. Under these conditions, a request for food imports from the Allied Powers cannot receive full sympathy. We are tired of dealing with a Government which neglects its responsibilities.

Whether the activities of political parties such as the Progressive, Liberal, and Social Democratic Parties can produce any results is questionable. These parties do not seem to be taking independent action in demanding from the Government a solution to the unemployment problem.

All parties should have enough strength to carry out organized activity. In certain cases, they should have more power to carry out plans than the Government. They should be expected to reach a solution to the unemployment problem by extending their activities to the people on the streets and to neighborhood organizations rather than convincing their efforts to mass meetings end speech-making.

The Government should stimulate those who are trying to reconstruct their damaged enterprises and those desirous of setting up new enterprises by giving direct aid.

Yet the capital control law remains unchanged, providing an obstacle to those who are anxious to begin enterprises. The cry to increase efficiency in administrative affairs is today becoming more pronounced than during wartime.

In the Cabinet meeting held on l6 November, the Welfare Ministry presented recommendations relative to the solution of the unemployment problem to the other Ministries concerned. Though many of the suggestions were commendable, they are so numerous that little progress can be expected.

We suggest that devastated areas be cleaned up to avail them for housing construction. Beth employed and unemployed workers must be put

EDITORIAL SERIES: 28 (Continued)

ITEM 1 (Continued)

to this-task. Scrap iron and wood salvaged from the debris can he collected at designated places. Other vacant areas must be cultivated at once.

Workers should be mobilized for transportation. Railway transport is inadequate, hence small scale means must be increased. Relay systems, using vans and hand-carts, should be put into practice between cities.

Illegally hoarded goods must be recovered. Various necessities have been hoarded since the end of the war.

The activation of the above measures will clarify its relation to the unemployment problem by stimulating the will to work.

If the authorities concerned on the political parties pursue this program with firm resolve, a satisfactory step would be achieved. But they idle away today, run into difficulties tomorrow and in the meantime morale grows worse.

It is easy to envisage the conditions to be faced if such vacillation is permitted to persist.

Full translation:

Partially due to the growing criticism of bureaucrats and partially due to the democratic influence upon them, officials have become conspicuously considerate of the public. During the war, though high officials including ministers and vice-ministers encouraged the Government personnel to act with kindness and politeness toward the people, we could not find any vestige of improvement in their self-complacent, arrogant manner.

In comparing the present with the situation previously existing we are now deeply impressed with the sudden change.

On the other hand, at present an overwhelming current of liberalism and democracy appears likely to sweep the life of the masses and end in vulgarity and rudeness.

This is not only regrettable, but also makes us feel somewhat uneasy about the genuine democratization of JAPAN. We find it even more regrettable that this degenerating tendency is more prevalent among the younger generation. But when we perceive that this demoralization is most obvious among Koreans and Formosans still remaining in JAPAN, then we, as one of the Asiatic nations, are ashamed that American soldiers should see this conduct.

Those Koreans and Formosans must be well acquainted with Japanese life and customs by living in JAPAN for many years and as Japanese subjects their actions reflect badly on us.

About one hundred Formosans in FUCHU, TOKYO prefecture, recently stormed a warehouse to carry away goods. They clashed with the police and were only pacified by Military Police. We are greatly chagrined at the riotous conduct of the Formosans and at the incompetence of the police, who could not repress them without outside help.

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ITEM 2 (Continued)

Aside from this case, some groups of Formosans unlawfully occupied a TOKYO branch of the Government-General Office of FORMOSA and absconded with some money and valuables. In this case, to our surprise, the TOKYO Metropolitan Police Board did not take any action.

In the world of democracy and liberalism, injustice and unlawfulness should be eradicated completely. We will never fail to distinguish incompetance from true kindness in the police. The fact that the police hesitated to repress these unlawful acts committed in broad daylight, we will never regard as an act of kindness to the citizens.

With situations like these to cope with, democratization of the ORIEHT will be very difficult to realize. The general masses should become more gentlemenly. The police authorities should rid society of injustice with bolder action.

Full translation:

Official prices for perishable food have been abolished. It seems that the problem had reached a crisis. The former Minister of Agriculture SENGOKU first abolished official prices, and then withdrew the abolition announcement at the order of General Headquarters. The present announcement of the abolition of official prices comes from Minister of Agriculture MATSUMURA and also a directive from General Headquarters. The Government officials of JAPAN have become absentminded and have lost their self-confidence completely. They do not seem to recover from "illness" which controls them. Their mentality is the same as that of those who wander along dark roads at night. The abolition of official prices will give them some relief and shelter, but they are still quite at a loss as to what to do.

Although prices for perishable food are said to be free, the authorities have not forgotten to set the price of food distributed by the TONARI GUMI (Neighborhood League). Whether or not free "control" is to succeed will not be determined by mere calculations. Nevertheless, it is a forward step in the relaxation of the difficulties that peddling and traveling and ake purchases fostered. Transportation of foodstuffs by train is relaxed. At one time, thousands of hawking peddlers came from CHIBA KEN to TOKYO every day, and special tramcars were operated for them. It is generally known that they helped to relax the shortage of food in TOKYO. Even after the hawking was prohibited, unlicenced peddlers, though few in number, wandered into the city, and recently some of them appeared openly in residential sections in the suburbs. Of course their prices are unduly high, hut these prices are inclined to be lowered by the free competition among them. If the hawking is allowed officially, it will effect the lowering of prices. If railway transportation of food is restored, the mad rush of long or short distance buyers will be reduced. Of course, money, leisure time, and friends will be big factors as in the past, but if there is more relaxation as time goes on, the poor people will also be favorably affected. We believe that entirely free prices will be accomplished only through this process.

ERRATUM

The sub-editorial of yesterday's paper distorted the facts. The truth is as described on the 2d page of this paper. We withdraw that

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ITEM 3 (Continued)

sub-editorial, and we apologize for the slander.

Full translation:

At this juncture, when the revision of the Constitution is being undertaken, the writer wishes to propose that the full text of the Constitution shall be rewritten in colloquial style.

Some people may claim that a colloquial Constitution would lack the gravity necessary in a fundamental national law. However, in the writer's opinion, a colloquial style which is easy to understand and is familiar to the whole nation would be better suited to the fundamental laws of our nation. The easiest and most familiar style possible is necessary as we increase the democratization of our Government by the lowering of the voting age, women's suffrage, etc.

The secret of the political education of a nation lies in letting the people become familiar with the Government or legislations of their own country. Toward that end, the Constitution in colloquial style would be a good example. Furthermore, other people may claim that the Constitution must be written in brief verse-like literary language which anyone may recite with ease, since it is the Bible or the foundation of a nation. But what about England where they have no written constitution?

There is no importance in writing itself. It is necessary that a nation understand the gist and spirit of every constitutional clause. So far the writer has discussed the Constitution alone. But the writer expects that all laws, ordinances and regulations, official directives and announcements will be written in colloquial style in the future, following the example of the Constitution.

One occasion, MIYAKE, a judge, launched a movement by urging that court decisions be written in colloquial style. We can justify his idea for the above reasons. Our laws "must be written in easier style, net for lawyers, but for the people", as Professor HOZUMI sail. This necessity is acknowledged by all lawyers themselves, especially, the civil law which contains many difficult clauses in it. Is it not a phenomenon contrary to our democracy?

Needless to say, it is on the difficult laws that our nation has expended much of its energy. It is also the difficult laws that have retarded the development of our civic education and have often been obstacles to a mutual understanding between the authorities and the nation during the eighty years of the Meiji Era.

It is necessary, for us to lead an easier and more natural social life by avoiding the use of a literary language as much as possible, not only in official circles, out throughout private social life. The Japanese and classical Chinese courses for secondary schools must be thoroughly examined so as to lay stress on such phases of education as are more useful to a new JAPAN.

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EDITORIAL SERIES: 28 (Continued)

Full translation:

So-called black-market dealings will disappear with the abolition of officially set prices and contra1 regulations, but the question will still remain unsettled. Even if we try to restore our daily transactions to a normal state by lifting control restrictions, food will, not appear on the market as easily as we expect. Since governmental control is not the only factor which hinders food supply, we should do our utmost to seek out and overcome other difficulties which interfere with it.

For the present, the assurance of transportation is one of the urgent problem. Under present circumstances it is doubtful whether we can easily transport those foods to areas where they are to be consumed even if we manage to purchase freely as much as we desire. The actual state of our transportation facilities is such that those faculties both on land and sea, cannot provide what is required by our plans. The cause does not lie in a deficiency of transportation, but in a lack of coordination of planning itself, often revealing that the plans we map out do not coincide with the transportation available. Therefore, transportation of food which is exempt, from control will make even more difficult the carrying out of our plans. In the case of fresh vegetables and fish, which are dependent on trucks for transportation, the difficulty will be greater.

We cannot expect an increase of food on the market if we neglect the assurance and improvement of transportation faculties. We are told that in big cities ninety per cent of the railway tickets are bought by those people who go out into rural districts to buy food and that forty per cent of these who set out to buy in the neighboring villages are brokers.

Our urban citizens' livelihood, whether they abstain from black market purchases or not, is entirely dependent upon what is brought to our cities by said buyers. Therefore the abolition of control will be, as in the words of a Japanese proverb, "To curve an image of Buddha and forget to put a soul in it."

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