A Proposed Kaitakushi Asset Disposal Provokes Protest and Is Canceled

As the Kaitakushi’s development program approached its planned end, the government considered disposing of its enterprises and other property. General disposal rules had been issued in 1880. In July 1881, Kuroda Kiyotaka instead requested a special arrangement under which four serving Kaitakushi officials would resign and form a company to receive much of the agency’s business.

Kuroda recommended Yasuda Sadanori, Orita Heinai, Kanai Nobuyuki and Suzuki Daisuke as men familiar with Hokkaido and able to continue its development. His request acknowledged that they lacked the necessary capital and sought exceptional terms. The disposal controversy also involved the Kansai Bōeki company associated with Godai Tomoatsu; these were connected arrangements, not simply one company buying every asset.

Public opposition focused on favorable terms and the connections between buyers and officeholders. Debate over public property became linked with demands for representative oversight. The government canceled the arrangements in October, removed Ōkuma Shigenobu during the same political crisis and announced that a Diet would open in 1890.

The contested transfer did not go through. The controversy nevertheless exposed the procedure by which public enterprises could be assigned to favored recipients through official requests and government approval, before an elected national assembly existed to examine them.