Local Improvement Movement

Japanese: 地方改良運動 - ちほうかいりょううんどう

After the Russo-Japanese War, the Ministry of Home Affairs led a government-sponsored movement aimed at restoring the nation's finances after the huge war expenses, intensifying social contradictions, and unifying the public's sentiments, which had been shaken by dissatisfaction with the peace treaty, through nationalism. It was promoted by Home Minister Hirata Tosuke and Home Minister Ichiki Kitokuro in the Katsura Taro Cabinet, and was named the Local Improvement Movement after the local improvement project seminars held in various locations around the country in 1909 for town and village officials. Hirata and other national bureaucrats determined that after Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War, it would have to compete economically with the European and American powers, and therefore that the postwar task would be to quickly establish and strengthen a domestic system that could withstand such an effort.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

日露戦争後，多大の戦費による財政破綻の立直しと，社会矛盾の激化，講和への不満などで動揺した民心を，国家主義で統合することを目ざして内務省主導で進められた官製運動。桂太郎内閣の内務大臣平田東助，内務次官一木喜徳郎らにより推進され，1909年以降全国の町村吏員を集めて各地で開催された地方改良事業講習会にちなんで，地方改良運動と呼ばれた。　平田ら国家官僚は，日露戦争勝利後の日本は欧米列強に伍して経済戦を戦わねばならず，したがってそれに耐えうる国内体制の整備･強化を早急に実現することが戦後の課題であると規定した。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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