2016 Volume 61 Issue 2 Pages 701-716
The Young Men's Association (YMA) was an education institute that provided business programs and further education for young men. Although previous research has thoroughly investigated the ideas and aims of the Department of the Army for encouraging physical education in the YMA, almost no investigation has focused on the ideas and aims of the Department of Home Affairs, which managed the YMA. Therefore, the present study focused on the hotokukai, which was an auxiliary organization of the Department of Home Affairs, to clarify the concepts behind the encouragement of physical education in the YMA hotokukai.
As a result, the following points were clarified:
1) The hotokukai placed particular importance on cultivating a spirit of diligent service, in other words, vocational training, which is the root of the doctrine of moral requital, when educating young people.
2) The hotokukai sought to encourage physical education for young people to cultivate physical strength for manual labor. This viewpoint of the hotokukai regarding physical education for youth can be perceived as an attempt to improve the lives of individuals through labor.
3) In order to investigate the methods used for encouraging physical education, the hotokukai held conferences on policy matters. These conferences were attended by not only hotokukai councilors but also invited external experts on physical education, education and medicine.
4) The hotokukai compiled the results of these conferences and published recommendations for encouraging physical education in shimin. These recommendations included details of concepts relating to physical education for national citizens and in schools as well as concepts for encouraging physical education in the YMA. Among these, it is possible to perceive independent hotokukai concepts in the sense that encouragement of physical education for young people should not be biased towards military preparation, but with a stated emphasis on adaptation to labor.
