ABSTRACT
The development of the new city planning system was closely associated with attempts by reformist bureaucrats within the Taishô Home Ministry to develop social policies to alleviate urban social problems, and the new social welfare and city planning policies developed between the end of the First World War and early 1920s were considered to be complementary by the Home Ministry “social bureaucrats” who designed them (Okata 1986). The development of the new approaches to city planning and social policy were initiated by the reformer Gotô Shimpei, a doctor, bureaucrat and statesman of exceptional administrative talent who had played a key role in reorganising the Japanese colonial administration of Taiwan (Peattie 1988). In 1917 then Home Minister Gotô set up a Relief Section within the Local Affairs Bureau to coordinate efforts to alleviate poverty and unemployment. That small Relief Section was later expanded into a Social Affairs Bureau in 1920 which dealt with unemployment, poor relief, veteran’s assistance and children’s welfare. It is that bureau which led many of the social management efforts discussed above. Also in 1917 Gotô set up the Urban Study Group (Toshi Kenkyu Kai ) within the Local Affairs Bureau to study urban planning issues, with Ikeda Hiroshi as director. Ikeda was a graduate of the University of Kyoto law department who had become head of the Home Ministry Roads Bureau at the age of 30 in 1911 (Ishida 1987: 123; Watanabe 1993: 170-2). The study group was chaired by Gotô himself until his death in 1929 (Koshizawa 1991: 14; Okata 1986), and included young bureaucrats from the Home Ministry, several professors from the University of Tokyo, a Diet member, and a newspaper journalist. This was a highly influential group, which apart from researching and lobbying for the improvement of planning legislation, also published the journal Urban Review (Toshi Kôron) as a forum for enlightened thinking about urban policy.
