W E HAVE seen that in the latter Tokugawa days outworn feudal
land tenure relations of vassal and feudal lord were being sup-
planted by a tenure system characterized by land ownership
obtained through cash purchase. Tenancy was the result of a rent
bargain whose terms were dictated by the owner. Now, under Meiji,
remaining feudal land institutions were systematically replaced with
modern fee simple ownership. By a series of statutes culminating in
1873 the new central government appraised and paid off the feudal
right holders thus ending that system and creating one of universal
private ownership. ¹

A principal objective of this move was to secure a regular and
substantial source of revenue. Paid in cash, tax revenues from land-
owners served as a base for national credit. As a result of the new
agrarian settlement, land could be bought, sold, or mortgaged at will
by private citizens using money as a medium of exchange. Although
the new Meiji statesman would perhaps have preferred to have had a
system of owner-cultivators, this pattern did not develop because
landowners found it much more profitable to rent their land to tenants.

Thus, subsequent land tenure development took a completely dif-
ferent turn in Japan from that occurring in Europe with the appear-
ance there of fee simple ownership. In the latter case the new owner-
ship class found it more profitable to operate their own farms with
their own capital and managerial ability. But the Japanese landowners
in many instances were discouraged from such a course by high rent-
als which land-hungry farmers were willing to pay. Consequently, the
principal effect of the Meiji Restoration on the land tenure of Japan
was to project into the modern period the earlier tenant situation
developed under the Tokugawas minus the feudal rights of lords. How-
ever, the new system still retained a feudal atmosphere with tenants
relegated to an inferior social status. This situation laid a groundwork

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