11 Educational Administration and Finance

The postwar reform of the local educational administrative system through the creation of boards of education in every prefecture, city, town and village was finally accomplished in November, 1952, as stated in the preceding chapter. However, the controversy which had surrounded the creation of these boards during the legislative phase was revived as soon as the system went into effect. Arguments arose over the unit of establishment, the methods of electing the members of the boards, the location of financial authority, the relationship of the boards to the heads and other organs of the local public bodies, and many other points. The Ministry of Education urged acceptance of the system at least until sufficient experiences were gained to judge its operation.

The demand for structural reform never really abated and discussion of a system-wide reform continued until 1956 when the Bill concerning the Organization and Functions of Local Educational Administration was introduced to the Diet. The projected reform was vigorously opposed by teachers and educational scholars who felt that educational administrators should continue to be elected by the public. After heated debate the Bill was passed on June 2, 1956, in its original form by the Diet as the Law concerning the Organization and Functions of Local Educational Administration, which was promulgated on June 30, 1956, and put in force on October 1of that year.

This Law created a system with the following characteristics:1) boards of education were established in every prefecture, city, town, and village; 2) members of these boards were no longer elected directly by the public, but were appointed by the head of each local public body with the consent of the local assembly; 3) the superintendents of the prefectural boards of education were appointed by the prefectural boards, subject to the approval of the Minister of Education, and the superintendents of the city, town, and village boards of education were to be appointed by the city, town, and village boards from among the members of these boards with the consent of the prefectural boards of education; 4) acquisition and disposition of educational property was to come under the authority of the heads of the local public bodies; 5) authority to appoint teaching personnel supported by prefectural funds was vested in the prefectural boards of education, based on recommendations forwarded by the city, town, and village boards of education; and 6) the Minister of Education was to provide the necessary guidance, advice, and assistance to enable prefectural, and city, town, and village educational administrators to handle educational matters properly; a similar service was expected from prefectural boards to cities, towns, and villages. The Minister of Education was further authorized to intervene when a matter of educational administration was illegally executed, or unfairly handled in a manner which contravenes the true aim of education, by the local authorities.

Within the Ministry of Education itself, a number of organizational changes have taken place during this period. The most important of these include the revival in May, 1958, of the Physical Education Bureau, which had dissolved with the 1949enforcement of the Ministry of Education Establishment Law, the establishment of the Director of the Minister's Secretariat in April, 1959, and a series of reorganizations in May, 1966, which included the elimination of the Research Bureau, the concentration of research, statistics, and planning services in the Minister's Secretariat and the establishment of the Cultural Affairs Bureau. Starting in May, 1961, deputy directors have been appointed to each of the bureaus. The governmental request in 1968 that every Ministry eliminate one bureau led, in June of that year, to the dismantling of the National Commission for the Protection of Cultural Properties and the Cultural Affairs Bureau and to the creation of the Agency for Cultural Affairs as an external agency of the Ministry of Education to handle all administrative matters related to cultural affairs.