ABSTRACT
Following the Meiji Restoration, Japan rapidly modernised its legal system to emulate the West. The same desire drove Japan’s colonisation of Taiwan, since possession and exploitation of colonies were European phenomena of the time. Japan adopted Western legal instruments in carrying out its colonial administration, especially those relating to land and property. This chapter examines Japan’s exercise of Western legal concepts in the contention about sovereignty over the aboriginal territories in southern Taiwan during the Mudanshe Incident (1874), and the Taiwan Sōtokufu’s (總督府 Governor-General’s Office) utilisation of modern legal institutions to methodically and progressively reform agricultural tenure and to take control of the unreclaimed land in the “regular administrative districts” (areas under government control) and the “special administrative districts” (aboriginal territory). Agricultural reform started with investigation of land ownership and cadastral survey, progressed to abolition of large rent rights and tax reform, and concluded with the introduction of the Western model of land registration. The Sōtokufu declared government ownership over all wasteland in Taiwan, and gradually took control of the land and confined the aborigines to aboriginal reserves. The contrast with the Qing operation is drawn, and the effects of the reforms and administration are evaluated.
