Programme for Land Development
Board of Planning
Fundamental national policies announced by the Government on August 1, 1940, provide for "the establishment of land development plans designed to enhance the total national strength and including Japan, Manchoukuo and China." This programme, after lengthy investigation by the competent authorities centred around the Board of Planning, was approved by the Cabinet on September 24, and is explained herewith in outline.
The land development programme envisaged includes comprehensive plans for the conservation, utilization and development of land and resources, a project which had been advocated for many years. Shinen Sato (1769-1850), a noted agricultural economist of the Tokugawa Period, treated the issue in his "Length and Breadth of the Land," calling attention to the far-reaching consequences of such an enterprise. For reasons to be explained herein, land development has come to the fore now as an essential item in basic national policies calling for prompt attention.
Urgency of the Plans
The construction of a new order in East Asia, which calls for close collaboration between Japan, Manchoukuo and China, is solely dependent on a concrete scientific programme for all three nations, particularly in connection with industrial economy, communications and transportation. Such a programme also calls for thoroughgoing land development plans. Vast changes in urban and rural populations, as a result of the sudden concentration of factories in the larger cities in the expansion of productive capacity, have given rise to considerable problems in housing and transportation, health and hygiene and air defence. Nor can the potential harm to farms and forests be minimized as a result of the migration of numbers of people to urban centres. Measures for controlling such movements under a definite programme consequently have become most urgent.
It is true that plans for the proper distribution of cities throughout the country, for localizing industries and controlling agricultural production, have already been made and applied in part. A comprehensive programme for coordinating and unifying all such plans, however, has never been completed, with the result that they have
been executed with but moderate efficiency. To overcome this deficiency and to provide a planned and unified objective for various national policies is the purpose of the land development programme.
Recent developments in world affairs indicate the possible formation of three major blocs of nations, Europe under the leadership of Germany and Italy, the Americas under the United States, and a northern area under the Soviet Union. In order for the nations and peoples of East Asia to maintain their own integral life in the face of the conflicting interests of these three potential groupings, it is necessary for them to form a sphere of common prosperity centred around Japan, Manchoukuo and China as a nucleus and including the South Sea region. For the establishment of this new order in East Asia as a component part of the new world order, the three nucleus countries must strengthen their national defence structure, for which a land development programme must be designed. In other words, the programme must cover China and Manchoukuo and take a long-range viewpoint of the future destiny of our own country. It should rearrange comprehensively the relationship of industry, communications, transportation and culture with the distribution of population in such a manner as to fulfill the requirements of national defence and to plan for the coordinated utilization, conservation and development of land. Every possible and practical measure under the current emergency must be employed under a single, consistent land development programme.
Method of Operation
The distribution of industries and population forms the centre of the land development programme. There is a plan for the distribution of heavy, chemical and light industries under principles which specify which kinds of industry shall be promoted to what extent in different parts of Japan and Manchoukuo, thereby establishing definite industrial zones.
In agricultural planning, such questions as the extent to which self-sufficiency in the supply of foodstuffs can be assured and a rational distribution of farm produts [sic] by areas will be studied in particular. Similar planning will be applied to fisheries and forestry. In mining, distribution will be planned according to the possibilities of developing the mineral resources of each particular area.
All economic planning is aimed at ensuring to the fullest extent a self-sufficiency in foodstuffs, war materials and other vital commodities by the development of resources in the East Asiatic sphere of common prosperity, in order to reach the highest level in the world
economic order. In this connection, however, it should be noted particularly that the land development programme must not regard land simply for materialistic utilization and development but also as an object for such national sentiment as will give the greatest amount of satisfaction in its development.
The distribution of population covers plans for the redistribution of cities, for the functional distribution of people by areas and a comprehensive migration plan for all three countries. The latter does not necessarily imply compulsory migration, but rather it seeks to induce a natural population movement with the planned distribution of industries, cultural and welfare facilities under a definite programme with a particular ideal in view. The programme presupposes a complete plan covering all phases of communication and transportation as well as power supply.
Planning in communication and transportation is twofold: the perfection of the transportation and communications systems in East Asia and also those in Japan and its overseas territories, which will permit unified control of these services by land, sea and air. The power programme necessarily must include the problem of fuel supply, and viewed fundamentally, plans for the conservation and improvement of waterways and forests must not be overlooked.
In working out the land development programme, it is most important to place particular stress on the coordinated distribution of industries and population, always keeping in view their organic relationships with communications, transportation and power supply. It is needless to add that air defence plans also must be accorded full consideration. Still another vital matter is the necessity for maintaining a dynamic rather than a static attitude in drafting plans and making surveys, so that the authorities concerned may be prepared at all times to adapt themselves to changing circumstances.
The proposed programme may be divided into two major parts: one embraces Japan, Manchoukuo and China and the other may be called a "central plan." The former will serve as a basis for planning in all three countries in formulating and carrying out their respective plans. The latter applies to Japan, based on the tripartite programme, and will apply to Japan proper and its overseas territories, making them a unified whole. In formulating the central plan, comprehensive nation-wide planning is essential for the utilization and development of land in conformance with national requirements and with a view to the full development of the characteristics peculiar to different localities. This central plan will serve as a guide for the projects to be undertaken by various
Departments of the national Government as well as by local governments, some of which will be executed directly by the Departments immediately concerned.
Agencies for Execution of the Programme
The land development programme will be under the supervision of the Prime Minister, with the Board of Planning directly responsible for its administration. A Commission on Land Development Plans will be set up as a formal Cabinet agency, acting as an advisory board in the formulation and operation of the programme.
Various Departments will participate in the formulation of the programme, engaging in investigation, planning and execution. In enforcing the programme, the Prime Minister must be in a position to exercise the necessary authority over undertakings of the various Departments. Local projects also will be under the general control of the Cabinet.
In this momentous time of world upheaval, which is the inevitable result of an impasse in civilization arising from the self-contradictions of a laissez faire economy, mercenary spirit and materialistic individualism, there must emerge a new and better order of economy. And it can be only planned economy, which permits the wholesale control of economic activities, such as the utilization, exploitation and mobilization of resources and labour as well as of capital and technique, in accordance with national needs. Even in countries like Great Britain and the United States, where liberal principles prevail in politics and economy, plans similar to the land development programme are under study.
When this programme is fully established, the distribution of population as well as industrial, economic, communications, transportation and cultural facilities will be organized by planning, and national policies certainly will be promoted and executed under coordinated control. Once the basic formula for the national economic construction is determined in the light of this land development programme, many current industrial and economic issues will be found susceptible to easy solution.