Reconsidering the History of Kashima Development: National Projects and Prefectural Policies

Abstract

This article reconsiders a policy process of Kashima Development in high growth period. Kashima Development is a monumental project in Japanese local development policy. Previous researches indicated that the power of local governor, central government, and central business affect this project. However, previous researches did not find out a critical factor in the process. If researchers could not explain it, we cannot understand Japanese local development policy through Kashima development. Therefore, this article tries to explain the case by analyzing contains focusing on something that previous studies missed.

As a result, this article clarifies three important historical facts. First, this article clarifies that central government formulated a plan of Kashima Development and local government could not formulate it in 1950s. Second, this article clarifies that the National Field-agency played a critical role in each part of policy process instead of local government. Third, this article clarifies that local government interpreted their condition realistically and partly practiced well in whole governance.

According to the facts, this article reconstitute the view of Kashima Development. Specifically, this article depicts Kashima Development that was a mixture process of National Project and complemental local governance by a National field agency and a local government.