Political Challenges Faced By The Allied Occupation Of Japan

Japan faced many political challenges during the allied occupation post World War 2, one of the primary challenges that were faced was the land reform that was introduced by the Japanese Government and furthermore implemented by the SCAP. The land reform was implemented “to overcome economic or political contradictions without changing the central social structure.” (De Janvry, 1981). The reform caused many problems for the wealthy class landlords but set for improved conditions for the lower class structure.
Toshihiko Kawagoe’s: Agricultural land reform in Post War Japan shows how the allied power faced challenges with the introduction of the land reform as land lords were trying to find possible ways of evading,
“The definition of absentee
A political challenge was also faced was with the amendment of the Farmland Adjustment Law of 1938 and enactment of the Owner farmer Establishment Special Measures Law which evidently lead to a compromise allowing for the refined ‘second land reform’ to be passed and the bill was implemented into Japanese law without moderation on the 11th October 1946. The execution of the land reform proved to be extremely difficult as it was involving 6 million different families with a third having the motive to try obstruct the purpose of it, as stated in Dore, R.P, Land Reform in Japan 1956. The Japanese government and people both faced many challenges due to this factor, Challenges being the need for an increased workforce and increased funding in implementing it into Japanese society. The execution of the Land reform caused for 415,000 people to be employed (32,000 secretaries of the Committees, 116,000 committee members and 260,000 assistant staff for the Committees) in a national and a prefecture level, this was so that the SCAP and
The SCAP set out to dissolve the Zaibatsu (large capitalist enterprises or conglomerates) beginning with the ‘Big Four’ being: Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and Yasuda. The SCAP initiated an anti-zaibatsu policy, which was set to enhance and strengthen the authority of Japanese bureaucracy along with the idea that it would reanimate the Japanese economy. The policy were set in as an ‘antitrust policy’ as the SCAP believed that the Zaibatsu’s were large contributors to japans militarisation and expansionism, so through the idea of a rapid dismantling of the Zaibatsu the SCAP assured a new network of government controls and regulations. Japan faced significant challenges as the Allied occupation quickly implemented new political commissions and laws such as the, Holding Company Liquidation Commission (HCLC), the passage of the Anti Monopoly Law, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), the Deconsentration Law and the Termination of the Zaibatsu Family Control Law, all as a way of, 1. Reviving the Japanese economy, 2. Generating more political control towards the Japanese bureaucracy and 3. To change the political and economic positions of the Conglomerates or Zaibatsu’s. The Idea of the ‘Deconsentration Law’ set political challenges as the Japanese government had an opposing opinion to that of the