ABSTRACT
Six hours by limited express farther south in the great industrial complex of the Kansai, the mayor of Osaka is preparing to leave for Tokyo, to negotiate details of grants-in-aid to his urban prefecture. Even farther south in the rural prefecture of Okayama, on the storied and beautiful shores of the Inland Sea, officials have just completed a meeting devoted to the rehabilitation of prostitutes and the search for new employment for brothel-keepers, whose ancient vocation has just been outlawed by national decree. A little farther south on the same Inland Sea, the mayor of Kure has just adjourned a labor liaison conference made up of representatives of his city, the local shipbuilding industry and labor unions. Several hours away, by modern railferry across the Inland Sea and by bus into a remote valley, a township clerk in the records office (yakuba) is pouring over statistics: within this tax jurisdiction there are 4,215 Japanese grouped in thirty-seven small hamlets (buraku), which contain 848 households with, on the average, 1.23 acres cultivated per household.
