Aspects of Tokugawa Bureaucracy and Modernization

There is perhaps in all history no parallel case to the swiftness and effectiveness of Japanese modernization in the few years following the Meiji Restoration of 1868. A few examples of it will suffice to indicate its extent and thoroughness. The feudal lords (daimyõ) returned their fiefs to the state in 1869, and the new prefectures were created in 1871. At the end of 1869 a telegraphic service began between Tokyo and Yokohama. In 1870 smallpox vaccination was made compulsory throughout the country. In 1871 there was new coinage based on the gold system, and the old currencies were abolished. By the following year a railway line existed from Yokohama to Shimbashi in Tokyo, and a government-operated spinning mill was set up in Tomioka in Gumma prefecture. A national system of primary education was established in these years, and the government not only planned but also intervened with investment in industrial developments, especially in heavy industry. Of quite fundamental importance were the missions which the government sent to Europe and the United States of America to study and report on various governmental, legal, and military systems. In all this there was obviously much central planning, central control and capable administration. There was also, and had to be, a fairly compliant and literate populace. Less obviously, one may assume that there were certain ‘growing points’ in the traditional values and social structure for the modernizing processes to develop from; evidence for that assumption will be offered below.     

Reclaiming Futures: A Model for Judicial Leadership in Community Responses to Juvenile Substance Abuse

Juvenile courts across the country have become the leading service delivery system for youths with substance abuse problems, not by choice, but by necessity. At 10 communities around the nation, judges and project staff are in their fifth year of pioneering changes to the way the juvenile justice system helps teens in trouble with drugs, alcohol, and crime. These judges are part of Reclaiming Futures, an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and they are working with local leaders to re‐invent the way law enforcement, courts, probation, detention facilities, treatment providers, families, schools, and the community work together to help troubled youths succeed. Together, they have written a guide for judges, court administrators, government entities, community leaders, and interested citizens to share the knowledge and experience they have gained from the nationwide Reclaiming Futures initiative. Their goal is to encourage and motivate others to launch similar projects in their communities, and to provide a blueprint for judges and others striving to undertake this level of collaboration.