Abstract
This research attempts to examine how the school oral hygiene system came to be established in the Taisho and early Showa eras. Prior literature has revealed that it was the dental associations rather than the government that took the lead in enforcing that system. This paper therefore sets up a hypothesis that dentist' demands for expanding their authority might have been a decisive factor in the system. Then, using Andrew Abbott's analytical model on professions, this paper examines the institutionalization of a school oral hygiene system as the result of inter-professional conflict for jurisdiction between school doctors and school dentists. From the analysis of medical discourses in technical journals, it is concluded that academic professional knowledge, jurisdictional claims and external forces affected the institutionalization of the system.
