明治立憲制の形成と「殖民地」北海道

抄録

In the present paper the author analyzes the political movements of colonists in Hokkaido during mid-Meiji Japan. From the early Meiji period on, the residents of Hokksido had placed under special governance, which denied them local political autonomy institutione and exempted them from military conscription, thus on the occasion of the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution, they were not endowed with the right to vote, as the politicization of Hokkaido initially appeared as a response to the problem of the foreign treaty revisions proposed by foreign minister Okuma Shigenobu 大隈重信, That is to say, the treaty revision question, which stimulated the organization of local powers on the prefectural level by political parties aiming at the opening of the Imperial Diet, meant for Hokkaido colonists a chance to demand their elevation to the social status of "Japanese citizens," while the pros and cons concerning the proposed revisions ushered in a situation that could not help determining political party affiliation on the part residents of Hakodate and Sapporo. In addition, concerning the directions taken by political parties after the opening of the Diet concerning the question of the colonization of Hokkaido, which should have been an issue of "national" importance, there was also a feeling in Sapporo and Nemuro of potential conflict with "prefectural" (or "mainland") Japan, which was causing a certain amount of fear and anxiety there. During the early sessions of the Diet, the residents of Hokkaido, mainly in Sapporo and Hakodate, began to petition the Diet on a number of issues. Activists in Hokkaido, while insisting that the issue of increasing funds for colonization projects was a "national question" strongly opposed the call in prefectural Japan for the reduction of tax and corvee burdens to promote labor and capital vitality in the private sector. Meanwhile, in Hakodate a plan was devised to set up a "Hokkaido Assembly" endowed with the right to deliberate over colonization project funding. In the midst of dissatisfaction there concerning directions taken by Hokkaido administrative agencies concerning colonization projects, this movement aimed at the adoption of such principles as "politics based on public opinion," and "more balanced roles between the public and private sectors." Such opposite approaches to petitioning the Diet on behalf of Hokkaido, which stemmed from conflicting interests among local entities within the territory, made any unified movement impossible. While both approaches ultimately aimed at the integration of Hokkaido residents as "Japanese citizens, and Hokkaido was in fact institutionally "prefecturalized" around the turn of the century, at the stage discussed in this paper, Hokkaido politics were not merely a simple question of integrating the territory and its citizenry into prefectural Japan.