근대일본의 민력함양운동과 국민교화정책

Abstract

In 1919, under the ban-ner of "postwar management". the Home Ministry launched the Campaign to Foster National Strength (Minryoku Kanyou Undo). Local officials were instructed to encourage, even compel, the public to worship at State Shinto shrines and place Shinto altars in their homes so as to cultivate a "sound sense of the State". Combining economics and morality, the Campaign to Foster National Strength also aimed at eliminating the habits of "luxury and self-indulgence" that had developed as the result of Japan's rapid economic expansion during World War I. Officials blamed reckless consumption for the postwar inflation and rising foreign debt; these were important factors in Japan's declining power to compete in world markets in the 1920s. The solution, they believed, lay in gaining the "thorough understanding and cooperation of all the people" on be­half of "restraint in consumption". The government's emphasis on savings promotion and austerity continued under the Campaign to En-courage Diligence and Thrift (Kinken Shorei Undo, 1924-1926) and the Moral Suasion Mobilization Campaign (Kyoka Doin Undo, 1929- 1930).