ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

This paper investigates the nature and patterns of petitions submitted during the Taishō era concerning increases in military pension and golden kite medal(Kinshi Kunshō) pension, addressed both to the Emperor and to the Imperial Diet, with the objective of exploring changes in the relationship between Japanese Imperial Household and the people. Owing to the unprecedented economic boom during the First World War, inflation severely strained the livelihoods of pension recipients, prompting them to mount vigorous campaigns for pension increases to the Diet around the end of the War. Meanwhile, from the promulgation of Petition Act in 1917 until late 1922, petitions submitted to the Emperor remained few, and were unrelated to the campaigns to the Diet. And these came from ‘persons outside the law' who, being unable to receive military pensions or medal pensions under existing system, individually appealed to the Emperor for relief. So, the Office of Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, responsible for receiving and processing petitions to the Emperor, could dismiss such claims by relying on prevailing law. In contrast, from late 1922―when a broad increase in military pensions was expected by the establishment of Pension Act―collective petitions to the Emperor proliferated in tandem with campaigns for golden kite medal pension increases to the Diet. And these did not call for individual relief, but for reform of the pension system itself. Although the Office of Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal attempted to resist by sending back petitions under the provisions of Petition Act, such measures proved largely ineffective. Confronted by coordinated petition campaigns to the Diet and the Emperor, the government ultimately revised Golden Kite Medal Pension Act in 1927 to raise pension amounts. Although the scale of increases was limited, this demonstrates that the people asked the Emperor directly not merely for collecting or considering but for implementing public opinion, and were able to achieve partial success, by taking advantage of the image of Imperial Household such as ‘directly connected to the people' or ‘protector of soldiers' promoted by Makino Nobuaki and Tanaka Giichi in response to the crisis faced by the Imperial Household after the First World War.

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