The historical significance of the Rent Control Act of 1939

Abstract

The purpose of this article is first to clarify the effect of Article 4 of the Rent Control Act (Kosakuryo tosei rei) by analyzing Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry records and official prefectural gazettes, and second to consider the historical significance of the act. Revision of tenant conditions was carried out on a national average of 20 per cent of all tenant land; however the percentage differed according to each prefecture, since it was the prefectures themselves which were responsible for the execution of the act. In this article, attention is given to two points relating to the effect of the act. First, Article 4 led to the formation of collective landlord-tenant relations, and therefore brought about a transformation of the traditional landlord-tenant relationship. The second point concerns the possibility of using the reduction in rents to bring about an increase in food production. Because the government was not able to provide clear leadership in this direction, the act did not necessarily lead directly to any such increase. In addition, the relation between rice output and rent levels was analyzed according to the methods of rent theory through regression analysis.