New System Movement - Shintaisei Undou

A political movement to establish a fascist political system, started in 1940 (Showa 15) by Konoe Fumimaro. Since the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937, the establishment of a national total war system required the ruling class to centralize power and mobilize the entire nation, which became an urgent task. Political reorganization became an issue, and from the end of 1937, new party movements led by political figures were repeatedly attempted both publicly and privately in the political world. All new party movements agreed on the goal of establishing a major political party with Konoe as its president, but they did not see the light of day because Konoe did not announce his candidacy. However, as the Second Sino-Japanese War dragged on, from the second half of 1939, critical situations such as inflation, shortages of goods, increasing labor and peasant disputes, and a "relaxing national spirit" began to appear. To overcome this situation, Konoe and his close aides Arima Yoriyasu, Kazami Akira, and Goto Ryunosuke organized the Konoe New Party and the powerful Konoe Cabinet based on it in March 1940, plotting to restrain the military and resolve the Sino-Japanese War. Their idea for a new party was to promote a new party movement in the opposition, backed by Nazi-style national reorganization theory, to eliminate liberal elements from existing political parties to create the Konoe New Party, and then to organize the Konoe Cabinet on top of that. In order to break down the preconceived notion that the new party was the coming together and fragmentation of political parties, they called their movement the "New System Movement."

The momentum for the New Order movement grew following the great victories of the German army on the Western Front in Europe after April 1940, but each faction had different demands. The army and the reformist right advocated a Nazi-style fascist one-party-nation system, the idealistic right emphasized the National Spiritual Mobilization Movement method, and the Interior Ministry bureaucrats who controlled the neighborhood and village associations agreed with the idealistic right and plotted to make the New Order an auxiliary organ of the government. Furthermore, the existing political parties aimed to dissolve themselves and secure leadership in the new order, and while the business world had high hopes for the new order, they opposed the new economic order proposals drawn up by the reformist bureaucrats.

On June 24, 1940, Konoe resigned from his position as President of the Privy Council and declared his will to join the New Order Movement, which caused the movement to gain momentum. However, Konoe struggled to make adjustments between the various factions, and succumbed to criticism from the ideological right that the New Order was a revival of the Konoe Shogunate. He abandoned the idea of ​​a new party and moved to a new order that would embrace all political forces without any principles. Meanwhile, the army and the right-wing revolutionaries were frantically trying to overthrow the status quo-maintaining Yonai Mitsumasa Cabinet and form the Konoe Cabinet, and the second Konoe Cabinet was formed on July 22. This marked the dissolution of all political parties, ushering in an era without political parties for the first time since the Meiji era. At the same time, independent labor and farmer organizations were forced to disband and were absorbed into various government-sponsored national movement organizations. During this process, neighborhood associations, village associations, and neighborhood associations were further developed under the guidance of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the police. On October 12th, the Imperial Rule Assistance Association was formed with Prime Minister Konoe as its president as the final settlement of the New System Movement, and a fascist regime was established. This was not achieved by relying on the power of a national movement from below, as in German and Italian fascism, but by strengthening the control of the imperial bureaucracy from above, and the people were placed under uniform fascist control through two routes: local self-governing organizations such as neighborhood associations, and government-sponsored national movement groups (both of which were incorporated into the Imperial Rule Assistance Association in 1942).

[Junichiro Kizaka]

"The Establishment of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, by Junichiro Kizaka" (included in "Iwanami Lectures on Japanese History 20", 1976, Iwanami Shoten) " "The New Konoe Regime, by Takashi Ito (1983, Chuokoron-Shinsha)" "The New Konoe Regime and the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, by Suruki Akagi (1984, Iwanami Shoten)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

1940年（昭和15）に近衛文麿(このえふみまろ)を中心に起こされたファッショ的政治体制樹立のための政治運動。1937年7月の日中戦争開始以来、国家総力戦体制を樹立するため、強力な権力集中と国民総動員とを実現することが支配層にとって緊急な課題となった。政界再編成が問題となり、37年末以降、政党人を中心とする新党運動が政界の表裏でたびたび企てられた。いずれの新党運動も近衛を総裁とする一大政党の実現という点では一致していたが、近衛が出馬を表明しないため日の目をみなかった。しかし日中戦争の長期化に伴い、1939年後半からインフレ、物資不足、労農争議の増加、「国民精神の弛緩(しかん)」などの危機的な状況が現れた。こうした事態を乗り切るため、近衛と彼の側近である有馬頼寧(ありまよりやす)、風見章(かざみあきら)、後藤隆之助(ごとうりゅうのすけ)らは、1940年3月から近衛新党とそれに立脚する強力な近衛内閣を組織し、軍部を抑制して日中戦争を解決しようと企てた。彼らの新党構想は、ナチス流の国民再組織論を背景に在野で新党運動を推進し、既成政党中の自由主義分子を排除して近衛新党をつくり、そのうえに近衛内閣を組織するというものであり、新党が政党の離合集散であるという既成観念を打破するため、その運動を「新体制運動」とよんだ。

　1940年4月以後のヨーロッパ西部戦線におけるドイツ軍の大勝利を契機に、新体制運動の機運が高まってきたが、これに対する各勢力の要求はさまざまであった。陸軍と革新右翼はナチス流のファッショ的一国一党を主張し、観念右翼は国民精神総動員運動方式を強調し、町内会と部落会を握る内務官僚は、観念右翼に同調しつつ新体制を行政補助機関化しようと画策した。また既成政党は解党して新体制のなかで指導権を確保しようとねらい、財界は新体制に期待しつつも、革新官僚の立案した経済新体制案には反対するというありさまであった。

　1940年6月24日近衛が枢密院(すうみついん)議長を辞任して新体制運動への挺身(ていしん)を表明すると、運動は一挙に盛り上がった。しかし各勢力間の調整に苦しんだ近衛は、「新体制は近衛幕府の再現である」という観念右翼の批判に屈して新党構想を放棄し、全政治勢力を無原則のまま丸抱えにするという新体制構想に移行した。その間、陸軍と革新右翼は、現状維持的な米内光政(よないみつまさ)内閣打倒と近衛内閣成立に狂奔し、7月22日第二次近衛内閣が成立した。これを契機に全政党が解散し、明治以来初めて無政党時代が出現した。同時に自主的な労農団体などは解散を余儀なくされ、各種の官製国民運動団体へ吸収されていった。またこの過程で、町内会、部落会、隣組が内務官僚と警察の指導のもとに一段と整備された。10月12日新体制運動の総決算として近衛首相を総裁とする大政翼賛会が結成され、ファシズム体制が成立した。それは独伊ファシズムのように下からの国民運動の力によらず、上からの天皇制官僚支配の強化として実現され、国民は町内会などの地方自治組織と官製国民運動団体という二本立てのルート（両者は1942年に大政翼賛会の下部組織に編入）を通じ、画一的なファシズム支配下に置かれることとなった。

［木坂順一郎］

『木坂順一郎著「大政翼賛会の成立」（『岩波講座　日本歴史20』所収・1976・岩波書店）』▽『伊藤隆著『近衛新体制』（1983・中央公論社）』▽『赤木須留喜著『近衛新体制と大政翼賛会』（1984・岩波書店）』

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