Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/192

142 altering of city by-laws and regulations; the voting of the budget and all matters involving expense; the modes of imposing and collecting all kinds of taxes; the incurring of a new liability or the relinquishment of an acquired right; the modes of management of city property and establishments; etc.

The constitution of a town or village assembly is also based upon the population, according to a fixed ratio. But in the grouping of electors according to the amount of taxes paid, there are only two classes. The rules, powers, and functions of a town or village assembly correspond exactly to those of the city assembly.

There are, in the case of towns and villages, two provisions which are not necessary in the case of cities. One provision prescribes a method by which two or more towns or villages, by mutual agreement and with the permission of the superintending authority, may form a union for the common administration of affairs that are common to them. The other provision prescribes that, by a town or village by-law, decided upon by the Gun council, "a small town or village may substitute for the town or village assembly a general meeting of all citizens having suffrage." This appears to be an imitation, in theory at least, of the Anglo-Saxon town meeting and village assembly.

The privileges of local self-government are extended to all parts of the empire except Hokkaidō and Formosa, which are administered as "territories"