Imperial Rule Assistance Association
대정익찬회
A Japanese political association launched on 12 October 1940 under the second Konoe cabinet and in existence until June 1945. It grew out of the New Order movement, which aimed at a one-party system modelled on Nazi Germany, and the existing parties dissolved to join it, but objections that one-party rule was unconstitutional prevented it from becoming a ruling dictatorial party, and it remained a national movement assisting government control of society. In 1945 it was absorbed into the Volunteer Fighting Corps and dissolved.
In depth
According to the Japanese-language source, after the May 15 Incident of 1932 discredited the parties, reformist forces among bureaucrats and the army began pushing to replace the multi-party system with a one-party system. When the first Konoe cabinet was formed in 1937 a movement arose for a new party headed by Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro, and the Social Masses Party strongly advocated a national-socialist system. However, once the National Mobilization Law and related laws were passed in 1938 the movement paused, and it collapsed when Konoe resigned.
When the second Konoe cabinet was formed in July 1940, a New Order preparatory committee was set up. Konoe and his advisers worried that a one-party system might conflict with the imperial prerogative and be unconstitutional. On 27 September the cabinet decided on the name Imperial Rule Assistance Association and Prime Minister Konoe became its president; the inaugural ceremony was held at the prime minister's official residence on 12 October, but Konoe issued no programme. According to the English-language source it was created by merging existing parties including the Rikken Seiyūkai, Rikken Minseitō, Kokumin Dōmei and Shakai Taishūtō.
The outline for a new economic order drawn up by reformist bureaucrats of the Cabinet Planning Board was largely watered down under business opposition, and in 1941 the Imperial Diet, wary that the association might become a single ruling party, cut its budget from 37 million to 8 million yen. Konoe yielded to the Diet and the right wing and decided on a reorganisation: in April 1941 the planning, policy and Diet bureaus were abolished and Home Ministry officials took over key posts such as branch heads, so that the association became in effect an auxiliary body of the Home Ministry.
According to the English-language source, after the 1942 general election all Diet members were required to join the Imperial Rule Assistance Political Association. In March 1945 the cabinet decided to form the Volunteer Fighting Corps for the defence of the home islands, absorbing the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, the Greater Japan Imperial Rule Assistance Young Men's Corps and the Greater Japan Women's Association, and the association was dissolved in June 1945. The Japanese-language source gives the dissolution date as 13 June in its introduction and 23 June in its body; the English-language source gives 13 June.