00166847

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The Origins and Development of the Agricultural Association System in Modern Japan

Kobe University law review

1

41-68

神戸大学大学院法学研究科

1961

2006-07-15

The agricultural associations were among the most important institutions in the rural communities of pre-war Japan. They began to make their appearance shortly after the Meiji Restoration (1868), the starting point of modern Japan. In the latter half of the 1890's they made a remarkable growth until at last they developed into a nation-wide network of organizations. The agricultural associations played in those days various economic and political roles in the interests of agricultural communities, particularly of the landed class there. It would be impossible, however, to give a detailed account of all those roles within this limited space, so that the purpose of the present article is simply to describe against a political background the whole process of their birth, expansion and growth into a national organization in the form of a "hierarchy of agricultural associations" during the period from about 1878 to 1910 and thereby to illuminate the characteristic features of this institution in historical perspective .

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