The Housing Policy Researching Committee of Dojunkai (HPRCD) researched the housing policies of Western countries from 1939 through 1940. It is important to show the process of its activities and the details of its research because Japanese wartime housing policy was drafted on the basis of the results of its activity. This paper’s originality derives from its focus not only on the HPRCD but also on preceding activity in Dojunkai.
The research division was founded in 1930 and “Research into the building and maintenance of small houses” began in 1934. Activities during the initial period did not focus on housing policy because Dojunkai was established to construct houses for survivors of the Great Kanto Earthquake. However, this improvement in the researching system was an underlying cause in the development of research regarding housing policy in Dojunkai.
“Research into the housing policies of Western countries” began as part of the “Research into the building and maintenance of small houses” in 1937. Research into Dojunkai systematically collected books about housing policies through embassies and translated them. By this time, S. Inui (Chief of the research division) was insisting that emergency measures should be drafted to deal with wartime conditions and that permanent measures should be drafted to establish the housing policies looking toward the postwar period. This was reflected in subsequent research.
In 1939, officials from the Department of Social Affairs of the Ministry of Health and Welfare started to draft measures to solve housing problems. The HPRCD was established in Dojunkai because the government did not have an organization capable of researching precedents in Western countries. Y. Kato, an official from the Department of Social Affairs, tried to draft a Rent Control Ordinance. He used the report from the HPRCD as a reference.
At the end of 1939, the Division of Housing was established in the Department of Social Affairs to form a comprehensive housing policy. The HPRCD researched and drafted the Housing Act to realize it. In this way, the HPRCD contributed to legislation regarding housing in wartime.
