Abstract
In 1921, the Hokkaido prefectural government (HPG) and assembly made policy to establish more than 40 prefectural secondary schools. The purpose of this paper is to point out the characteristics of this policy especially from the point of view of its method to set up these schools. The results were as follows; 1 The HPG consulted the prefectural assembly about the extension of prefectural secondary schools with contributions collected from residents living near the school. And the assembly reported the extension plan with donations in spite of opposition by some assembly members. 2 Some local governments came to build the schoolhouses beforehand to ensure the establishment of the prefectural secondary school in their area due to the shortage of prefectural finance caused by the depression. 3 Instead of establishing prefectural schools, the HPG allowed the local governments to set up their own secondary schools by themselves because the HPG anticipated that they would ask to change the founder of the schools from town-run to prefectural. In this way, it was possible to establish prefectural secondary schools without paying the initial cost from the prefectural budget. From the end of the Taisho Era this method became usual to set up prefectural secondary schools until the end of the World War II.
