Ministry of Popular Affairs


The Ministry of Popular Affairs may refer to:
  1. one of the Eight Ministries of the Japanese imperial court, established by the Taihō Code of the early 8th century, and continued under the Ritsuryō legal system.
  2. A short-lived ministry during the Meiji period.

    Minbu-shō (Ritsuryō)

The ministry, established by the Taihō Code and Ritsuryō laws, was one of the Eight Ministries, in the wing of four ministries reporting to the Controlling Board of the Left out of eight ministries. As the name indicates, this body was concerned with oversight over the affairs of the common people, viewed as taxable producers of goods. The ministry maintained various records: the population census sent from the provinces, cadastral records, and tax accounting records.

Ministerial authority under Yōrō Code

The Yōrō Code, stipulates the powers vested in the ministry, under its Official Appointments statute. There it is stated that :


In the above "all provinces" does not include the capital. The census for the aristocracy who had clan names etc. was under the purview of the Jibu-shō. And the ministry was not "directly responsible for the upkeep of roads, bridgees, etc.," but merely kept such records for taxation and tax transportation tracking purposes.

Popular Affairs certificate

The ministry issued order certificates or charters called the minbushō-fu to officials and provincial governors. The shōen system recognized private ownership of reclaimed rice-paddy lands, but did not automatically confer tax-exemption. From the early Heian period, the tax-exempt or leniency status was ratified by the certificate or charter issued either by this ministry or the Great Council itself..
In the Jōgan period occurred a breakdown of the Ritsuryō system under the Fujiwara no Yoshifusa regime, with authorities of the ministries absorbed by the Great Council. The decree of Jōgan 4, VII, 27 essentially stripped the ministry of its control over the tax-leniency policy, ordaining that all applications for tax relief would be decided completely by the Great Council of State, and its ruling delivered directly to the countries by the Great Council's certificate. The ministry still issued certificates for exemptions on the shōen estates, but this was just rubberstamping decisions from above, as before. These changes in the exercise of administration were codified in the Jogan shiki and later Engishiki. The ministry was thus reduced to processing clerical responsibilities concerning the provinces.

Hierarchy

The Minbu-shō was headed by the minister, whose office was ordinarily filled by a son or close relative of the emperor, of the fourth grade or higher.
Under the Ministry were two bureaus:
The Shukei-ryō, or Kazue-no-tsukasa, the "Bureau of Computation" or "Bureau of Statistics." was in charge of two forms of taxes, the chō and the yō. The yō was a form of conscripted compulsory labor, or more often the goods paid to be exempt from the obligation.
The Shuzei-ryō or Chikara-ryō, the "Tax Bureau," was in charge of the third form of tax, the so. The three forms of taxes were known as Soyōchō under the Ritsuryō system.
The Rinin was an ancillary facility to this ministry that stored a portion of the corvée tax and nenryō shōmai, which were distributed during ceremonies and functions.

Personages who held offices

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Citations