Since the publication of W. Thomas and F. Znaniecki, “Polish Peasant in Europe and America” in 1918, the arm chair philosophizing has given way to the application of strict scientific logics to sociology. American sociologist in the last half century have devoted increasing attentions to the empirical study of socio-cultural phenomena in the localized area.
Park's suggestive paper on “the City” was the point of departure for many inductive studies undertaken at the University of Chicago, which resulted in the development of human ecology as a new approach to the interpretation of the urban community.
This inductive method formulated many important hypotheses and concepts such as Burgess' together with devices of measurement of social phenomena.
The focus of attention of ecological studies was on localized, territorially delimited social structure and social phenomena. They gave to the distinction between society and community a central position in the conceptual framework of human ecology. Unfortunately this distinction, when used in scientific discourse, had the disadvantage of ambiguity.
Thus the period of burgeoning growth bas given way to a second phase in which sober criticism rather than feverish application is the prevailing note.
The theoretical discussion on human ecology have chiefly centered upon this distinction. Quinn ; Hollingshead, Firey, Gettys, Hawley and Wirth among others made efforts to reexamine the old theories.
Human ecology is unable to exhaust the whole of social life which is a complex interdependent whole. Human ecology provide us with one of the hitherto neglected aspect of the matrix within which social events take place.
It was Wirth's great contribution to the urban community study that he set up an ideal type of urban mode of life which is approached by three interrelated perspectives as an ecological order, as a system of social organization and as social psychological phenomena.
The empirical evidence concerning these studies of the urban way of life confirms the fruitfulness of this approach.

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This paper intends to consider how E. Durkheim's concept of anomie (in Le Suicide, 1897) has been developed by recent American sociology, particularly by Talcott Parsons and Robert K. Merton. What Durkheim called anomie is the state of society in which the traditional rules, which once controlled various needs, have lost their moral authority. When the rules concerning “distribution of men” among various occupational rules and limiting the range of each rôle-incumbents' hedonistic satisfaction lose their authority, desires become immensely intensified. The competition for the desirable rôles grows more intense. This results in personality disorganization. Parsons conceptualized the functions of these two rules as th t of two or three allocative mechanisms which maintain society as a system- “allocations of personnel, facilities and rewords”. Parsons and Merton brought into relief the relation of allocation of personnel and anomie. The norm which regulates this mechanism directs the actor to be ambitious toward attaining his goal, and to obey a socially approved pattern. For most of the members of a society, the only approved means is “good work” in their roles. On the other hand, from the view-point of the actor, there are two kinds of motives causing him to perform his role. One of them is success motive which brings various rewards. Some emphasize only this motive because of the ideology of an acquisitive society. But another kind of motive must not be neglected. That is the one demanding spontaneous conformity to the moral pattern which regulates the performance of each role. Under this condition, individuals realize their own potentialities. This results in the attainment of each technical goal in high degree. In short, these two kinds of motives correspond to “success” and “good work” respectively. However, for most people of a society, it is difficult to attain such goals by good work alone. This dilemma is one cause of deviant behavior. The classificatory principle underlying the typology of cleviant behavior and the key to understand deviant motivation are that moral norm which controls allocation of personnel is, both in its aspect of goals and means, more or less internalized in personality.

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In this report we hope to elucidate the following point :
1) What form of village-ruling structure has developed in the village studied through the economic development since the Meiji Restoration (1868), and
2) what form did the land reform take and with what consequences ? In other words, in what degree can its aim be said to have been realized, that is, “the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies” in the rural area ?
The majority of the ruling elites of this village before the land reform were farmers who had risen in the economic hierarchy through the profit from sericulture which had become made spread since about 1900. They owned 2.5 to 7.5 acres of arable land and 12.5 to 17.5 acres of forest. They constituted about 15% of the 504 farmers in this village and almost of them were owner-farmers.
Such people had occupied the leading positions in each buraku (sub-community) by the subordination of the members of their kinship groups and tenants. Moreover, as representatives of each buraku, they controlled the village administration. An important fact to be noted is their predominant positions by gaining control of the management of the community owned forests which covered some 2500 acres. Including the Wariyama system the community-owned forest system in this village was forcibly created by them in 1913, after the several years' conflict against middle or lower status farmers.
As a result of the land reform, their positions in the village were shaken considerably in the first phase. They had to contend against the farmers' union for the distribution of land and leadership in village administration. The farmers' union organized the middle and lower status farmers and, in consequence of the political situation of that time n Japan, enjoyed superiority over the former ruling structure. But the farmers' union, which took upon itself the role of driving force of land reform, failed to root in the village life and has weakened rapidly. Particularly after its leaders tried to obtain the partition of the forest land, the loss of its position was marked. At this point, the old élites, who had lost self-confidence temporarily, manipulated public opinion and succeeded in isolating the farmers' union. As a result they were able to re-stabilize their positions.
In conclusion, the democratising movement in this village which budded with the land reform failed to disorganize the traditional solidarity of the village and gave way. We may point out as the main factors in this process :
1) Because of failure to secure the partition of forests in the land reform, the economic basis of the middle and lower status farmers in this village, which was heavily dependent upon forestry, was not adequately strengthened.
2) The farmers' union was organized by non-farm leaders and the farmers were not familiar with its activities. For these reasons the farmers' union could not develop enough to disorganize the traditional solidarity.
3) The changing in the political situation in Occupied Japan, most marked since about 1949, has been a favorable factor in the revival of the old élite groups.

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As cities developed early in Japan, the poor existed in the cities as for back as the feudal period. They were bound by many feudal bonds, therefore their mobility was small. As the original accumulation of capital began, the number and the mobility of the poor rapidly increased. In the cities, particularly the larger ones such as Osaka and Tokyo, the emergence of slums took place. This may be considered as occuring in the early twenties of the Meiji period (18681913). The emergence of the slum was primarily the results of class differentation, and with it, the local lower strata appeared.
Feudal ranks were abolished by the Meiji Restoration. Being thrown into in capitalistic society which was different from their former circumstances, warriors (Bushi) who previously had been assured of their living by hereditary pension, were unable to find employment, and the value of the public bonds they received as the compensation for the abolition of their hereditary pension decreased due to economic changes. Consequently, they were hard-off. The peasants constituted the majority of population. During this period of original accumulation especially during the period of the deflation between 18821886, the poor peasant stratum increased remarkably, and there occured rapid differentiation of strata. Also, many handicraftsmen and manufacturers who had been under the old bonds-e.g. the apprentice system, were hard hit during this period, as these bonds were weakened and their wages decreased.
Many people in these strata hard hit by this class differentiation flowed from rural area into the cities, and many of those living in cities were ruined. These Mal-adjustments led to the formation of slums in Tokyo and Osaka. But the character of these slums is different from that formed by an industrial proletariat after an industrial revolution. It is a form which is found in the transitional period of original accumulation of capital.

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