Press translations [Japan]. Editorial Series 0251, 1946-01-16.
Date16 January, 1946
RepositoryRauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
Call Numbereditorial-0797
Call NumberDS801 .S82
Persistent Identifier
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EDITORIAL SERIES: 251
ITEM 1 The Reserved Area of Farming-land for Landowners in Niigata Ka - Provincial
Newspaper Niigata
Nippo (Niigata) - 11 Jan 46. Translator: T. Unayama.
Summary:
In the Assembly for Agrarian Land Investigation, which met in TOKYO on 7 January,
the area of agrarian land reserved for
landowners was discussed, and it was decided that the respective area for the landowners
in our prefecture should be five cho,
two tan which was two tan more than the average area in the rest of country.
When the hill for the Agrarian Land Re-adjustment Law was submitted to a Cabinet
council, there was a heated discussion
centering about the reserved area, and the reserved area of 3 tan the original bill
was raised to five tan, for the
landowners' benefit. If this question is left in their hands, the reserved area will
be increased more and more, and the
intention of the bill, which has an epochmaking economic significance as the first
step in the democratization of agriculture,
will be destroyed. This trend of the political circles in JAPAN shows that the influence
of landowners, capitalists and
privileged classes is working in the under-currents of politics. Therefore stands
to reason that the farmers, who were
well-informed, were mortified.
Some landowners might be discontented with the area of five cho two tan, but the
landowners in the mountain regions might set
their minds at rest. In the mountain villages, anyone who has a cultivated area of
five cho two tan is still a "danna-sama", a
gentleman, to the tenant-farmers, and can make good living without laboring in the
fields; but in a flat country, a man who
has the same area may be unable to maintain his dignity, and has to work hard himself,
and get smeared with mud. In short,
landowners' circumstances are of various kinds according to environment. It is, therefore,
too hasty a conclusion to say that
the release of farming-lands by the law means the democratization of agriculture.
If the Government has intentions of a real reformation of the land system, it should
release uncultivated lands owned by the
villages and the government, to say nothing of the lands held by landowners who have
not engaged in farming personally. The
law may be made, but the measure to meet the real state of things must not be a slave
to the law. Anyhow, the application of
the referred Agrarian Land Law is to fall into the hands of the Agrarian Land Committee,
which is to be established in the
near future.
Hence, we require that the committee should be made up of persons who are worthy
of taking charge of the solution of all
agrarian land problems, and that the landowner character of the law should be removed
by the committee. Moreover, we dare to
advice the committee to realize that the feudal system of Japanese farming is not
dissolved by the establishment of
peasent-proprietors, in the present situation of farm-villages.
EDITORIAL SERIES: 251 (Continued)
ITEM 2 The Prospects of the Farmers' Movement - Provincial Newspaper Niigata Nippo
(Niigata) - 12 Jan 46.
Translator: K. Ketel.
Summary:
With the democratic revolution, farmers' associations are making brisk developments
throughout the country. It has been
reported that various associations are ready to carry cut economic warfare in order
to solve the food and land questions, and
that they are meeting with success. Another report has revealed that the JAPAN Farmers'
Association held a permanent committee
meeting and that it planned to direct the coming farmers' moverment throughout the
country.
The first time a representative farmers' movement was carried out was in April, 1922,
at the foundational mass meeting of
farmers' associations in OSAKA. Since then this organization has fought against oppression
for more than 20 years in order to
protect the living standard of the poor farmers.
At the end of the TAISHC period (around 1925) a signal was given to the farmers of
our prefecture (NIIGATA) by the OZAKI and
OBATA Affairs and a resolute movement developed. After that, suppression by the bureaucrats
started and the movement grew more
and more. However, in spring, 1937, when the people's front was formed the farmers'
organization collapsed and a Farmers'
Association of greater JAPAN was established.
When hostilities between CHINA and JAPAN broke out, the oppression of farmers was
cast down by the dissolution of the Farmland
System Improvement League ordered in 1942. However, since the end of the war, the
great waves of democratic revolution have
washed away despotism and revived the old organization.
In November last year a general meeting was held in order to prepare for the new
farmers' movement in NIIGATA prefecture and
various farmers' association have been re-established.
There are two distinctive forms of movements, due to their different standpoints
and ideals. The Farmers' Association led by
executives of the Social Party stands vis-a-vis the farmers' committee under the direct
leadership of the Communist Party. The
Social-Democrats are trying for economic warfare by using the Farmers' Association,
while, on the other hand, the Communists
are going to advance into the political sphere of influence.
Our prefecture proposes four Social-Democratic leaders who have been recommended
by the farmers' association to run as
candidates, and expects that they would bring closer relations between the movement
of the farmers and that of the political
parties. The Communist Party holdly tries to carry out political warfare by means
of the farmers' committee and by dissolving
the agriculture associations. However, the Communist Party of our prefecture has not
yet been completely organized, and it is
said that it will still be a long time till this party is fully organized throughout
the country.
Those parties are eagerly pressing towards a quick execution of revolutionary movements,
but, on the other hand, the farmers
of our prefecture are extraodinarily phlegmatic and many of them are still adhering
to the feudal system. Furthermore, the
bureaucratic organization remaines unchanged and the power of the landlords is rooted
in the mind of the farmers.
The former Minister of Agriculture and Forestry MATSUMURA showed an unchanged bureaucratic
tone in his speech in the Diet and
many individuals are blocking the way of the farmers' movement. SCAP's directive regarding
the release of the farmers will be
of great significance and we are anxious to observe how the leaders of this movement
strive foresuccoss.
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EDITORIAL SERIES: 251 (Continued)
ITEM 3 Comments on Three New Taxes and Conditions Limiting Use of Tax Income - Provincial
Newspaper Chubu
Nippon Shimbun (Nagoya) - 13 Jan 46. Translator: Y. Ebiike.
Summary:
The general outline of the Government-drafted plan for levying three new taxes of
an epochal magnitude was revealed on 10
January. Now the only thing that remains to be seen is what amendment will be made
on it along democratic lines by the new
Diet's decisions, and how the revenue from these sources can be collected and used
by the Finance Authorities most
effectively, that is, for the purpose of relieving the present national distress.
When viewed from the degree of urgency, the aims of these new taxes should be the
prevention of vicious inflation,
reconstruction of financial policies, confiscation of war profits and redistribution
of property. Of these taxes, the
Corporation Property Tax is estimated to yield 20,000,000,000 yen, the Individual
Property Tax, 50,000,000,000 yen, the
Individual Property Increase Tax, 25,000,000,000 yen, and the Corporation War Profit
Tax, 5,000,000,000 yen. Thus the sum
total amounts to 100,000,000,000 yen, and over 2,000,000 households are supposed to
be affected by the new taxation. If the
recently acquired assets of individuals and corporations in JAPAN, as represented
by savings and desposits, are estimated at
150,000,000,000 yen in each case, about one-third of this amount is going to be collected
as tax. In other words, a sum three
times as large as three years' income of the peopel will at once be turned into the
coffers of the state, since the people's
income is estimated to total 30,000,000,000 yen this year.
In these critical days of aggravating inflation, the three kinds of property tax
are charged with a very important mission
which aims at absorbing one-third of both the potential and immediate purchasing power,
and thus at stabilizing the value of
the currency. We can not be sure, however, that these new taxes might not turn out
to be taxation of the masses and their
income to be financial capital instead of industrial capital. Therefore the people,
to say nothing of the Diet members, should
be critical of the nature of the new taxation and vigilant of the ways the Government
spends the revenue from these
taxes.
The key to successful enforcement of taxation depends upon a fair and balanced rate
of taxation and speedy collection of taxes
when the amount has been fixed. If delay in payment to be outlined for special cases
provided in the draft should be
excessively resorted to, some people may take advantage of this provision in anticipation
of the aggravating inflation in the
future, which will result in reducing their burden. Again, if the authorities' attitude
was too stern in the appraisal of
these properties whose value is rapidly expressed in currency denomination, while
on the other hand too generous in that of
lands factories or machinery which will rise in price in the future, it win result
in such an estreme inequity that only those
who posses means of production will be rich someday, while almost all middle class
working people will be brought to ruin in
the end.
What is wrong with the new taxation plan and what apprehension de we have about it?
First, when viewed from the stand point of the rate and the exemptions in the taxes,
properties of a medium or small size are
taxed, rather heavily. The low exemption rate of 20,000 yen gives us some apprehension
that the new levy may prove one that
hits the masses hard. As for the individual property tax, which levies 10 per cent
for 20,000 yen to 30,000 and 70 per cent
for more than 50,000,000 yen, the adoption of such a progressive taxation as this
will result in making little difference with
millionaires whose taxation rate is not much higher than that for ordinary property.
Therefore to avoid such mass taxation the
exemption point should be raised to 50,000 yen at least and the highest rate of taxation
to 90 per cent.
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EDITORIAL SERIES: 251 (Continued)
ITEM 3 (Continued)
The second defect is the heavy taxation on individual properties as compared with
the light taxation on incorporated
properties. The corporations' reserve funds, which are the chief objective of the
corporation taxation, are taxed as low as 20
per cent. Reserve funds, in fact, are not needed in those factories which were damaged
in the recent war. In case, however,
their production increases someday, they had better collect more capital from the
masses, preferably from their
employees.
The third defect is the unfair estimation of both movable and immovable properties.
All measures are taken for recognizing and
taxing those movable properties whose value is expressed in terms money, while low-value
estimation is made for such immovable
properties as war-ruined land and those lands possessed by big landlords. Therefore,
farm rent payable in money instead of in
kind should be encouraged from the viewpoint of a fair taxation too
All in all, since the main object of the new taxes lies in the prevention of inflation
and the stabilization of the people's
living, the immense tax income should be spent in accordance with this object and
the Diet should see to it that this object
is attained successfully through legislative measures. In these circumstances the
revenue accuring from this source should
never be used for the purpose of indemnifying munition industries.
Next, one half of this income should be appropriated for reconstructing the national
economy, encouraging production,
relieving the unemployed, while half of the remaining amount should be set aside for
redeming the public bonds now held by the
Bank of JAPAN, and also for reducing its bank note issue by half, thus paving the
way to the return to the limited currency
issue system.
Next in importance comes the redemption of the public bonds held in other banks,
who in their turn will be able to pay off
their liabilities with that money. At the same time, loans hereafter should be restricted
to those enterprises which are
indorsed by production.
These measures alone can free us from the impending inflation on one hand, while
safeguarding us against possible deflation on
the other. If the three major taxes should be carried out without master statesmanship
and courage, the new measures will end
only in a mere shifting of funds without any practical benefit realized.
DISTRIBUTION "X"
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