(3)National Treasury's Share of Compulsory Education Expenses and Other National Subsidies for Educatuon

During the month of October, 1917, policy for the improvement of elementary education was taken up as the first topic of discussion of the Special Council for Education. The matter was considered to be one of great urgency, and the Council recommended in the following month that salaries for city, town, and village elementary school teachers should be paid through a joint contribution on the part of the National Treasury and the cities, towns, and villages whereby the central government and the local governments were to provide equal amounts. The Council's statement went on to express the hope that teachers' salaries might be increased, that the financial burden of cities, towns, and villages would be lessened and that the economic affairs and tax systems of the local communities could be reformed. Based on these recommendations, the 1918 Law concerning the National Treasury's Share of City, Town, and Village Compulsory Education Expenses was promulgated on March 27, 1918, which came into force on April 1 of that year. According to this Law, a part of the regular salaries of full teachers and associate teachers in the city, town, and village ordinary elementary schools would be provided by the National Treasury. For this purpose the National Treasury was obliged to set aside the annual sum of no less than ten million yen per year. This action was to have a particularly significant impact upon the history of the financial affairs of compulsory education in Japan.

Based on this Law, the National Treasury provided ten million yen annually for compulsory education between 1918 and 1922, forty million yen annually for the period 1923 to 1925, seventy million yen for 1926, 75 million yen annually for the period 1927 to 1929 and 85 million yen annually for the period 1930 to 1939. Thus national expenditures were increased as education was reformed to meet the changing demands of the social situation.

A grave economic crisis arose during the twenties, which made itself felt with particular acuteness in rural communities. The Ministry of Education issued instructions in October, 1928, for the encouragement of school attendance by school-age children, the purpose of which was to provide financial assistance to the prefectures for the educational support of underprivileged children. The initial sum was 500,000 yen and the provision was continued thereafter even until 1947 after World War 2, as a matter of form.

The Ministry of Education issued instructions in September, 1932, provided for school lunches for school-age children from low-income families and set aside an annual sum of one million yen for this purpose from 1932 to 1934. Along with the worsening of the economic situation there was a reduction of local educational expenditures especially in towns and villages, some of which actually delayed the payment of salaries to elementary school teachers. Based upon the investigation carried out by the Ministry of Education in December, 1930, about 10% of the towns and villages across the country had delayed payment of either the entire salary of the teachers or at least a part thereof. As a measure to counteract this situation, the salaries of local public elementary school teachers were cut in 1931 and on September 6, 1932, the Law for Temporarily Subsidizing City, Town, and Village Ordinary Elementary School Expenses from the National Treasury was promulgated, which came into force on that day, The annual sum amounted to twelve million yen from 1932 to 1934 after which it was planned to discontinue the practice but an additional nine million yet was appropriated in 1935. The subsidy was abolished in 1936. In that same year, however, a new system was set up to provide emergency aid for impoverished towns and villages when necessary. The new system was effective only in 1936, but in the following year another system was established which was somewhat expanded to include also emergency aid for prefectures.

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