The daiku-shoku system (a centralized district system that abolished all preexisting towns, village, (大区小区制)
The daiku-shoku system is one of the local systems set up in 1872 during the Meiji Period.
Daiku (literally, a big ward) administrative districts were created under each Prefecture, and shoku districts were put under the daiku. Administrative districts were called in numerical order, for example, 'shoku 6 of daiku 9, '.
History
In 1871
In preparation for creating a unified national family register system, the government enacted the Family Registration Law in 1871 and set up ku (ward) as an administrative unit.
In 1872
The government abolished existing administrator systems, such as shoya and nanushi (both village headmen), dai-shoya (big village headmen) and toshiyori (administrators), which was established in the Edo Period. Instead, a kocho and a deputy-kocho who took charge of the family register were appointed uniformly throughout the nation.
In October in the same year, ku (wards) were renamed daiku and shoku were created by merging several preexisting towns and villages and placed under daiku. Each Daiku was managed by a ward mayor and a deputy mayor. Each Shoku was controlled by a kocho and a deputy kocho, to which experienced village and town administrators during the Edo Period, such as shoya, nanushi and toshiyori, were appointed. This is the daiku-shoku system. Each ward was called in numerical terms.
In 1878
The daiku-shoku system was abolished when the Act for the alignment of local government system (No. 17 edict of Dajokan [Grand Council of state]), one of the three new laws related to the local government system, was enforced in 1878.
Public evaluation
The ultimate purpose of the daiku-shoku system was to install a family resister system and was embodied in Jinshin-koseki (family registries in Jinshin), but the system itself was not well accepted among people. It is because the government undervalued the villages and towns which had resolved various regional issues autonomously for a long period of time, but instead established an administrative body which did nothing but relay and enforce the orders of the central government. The system did not fit into the reality of regions and disregarded customs unique to them, as the government was in a hurry for modernizing the nation.
Learning a lesson from the experience of the failed local system, the government established the act for the alignment of local government system in 1878 and the practice of the local system was reviewed.