Abstract
This paper aims to make it clear why the closed recruitment system of formal leaders exists in Japanese local communities. And this purpose will be accomplished by researching into the source of reputation for community leaders. For this, we analyzed the attitude structure of inhabitants to the leaders. The field of research is “S - ku”, an agricultural section, Ayama town, Mie prefecture. At “S - kuthe norm has been kept up that candidates for members of the town assembly on the recommendation of this community have to take up his post with the formal top - leader, that is “ku - cho” .
The hypothesis, which we bring forward on the findings of the historical change of community leadership, is that leaders are estimated according to the values in which achievement enter into ascription.
This hypothesis is substantiated as follow. (1)The traditional leaders(die Honoratioren) in the Edo era had been estimated according to the values of ascription with their achievements. (2)From the Meiji era to the prewar, the leaders had something in common with the traditional leaders. (3)In the postwar, inhabitants have come to estimate the community leaders on achievements as the formal leaders in this community. (4)At the present time, however, inhabitants tend to rank the former “Ku - cho” on the basis of the attitude structure of comparable to it in the prewar, which means that they vest him one competence for the candidacy of the town assembly.
