The Ministry of Popular Affairs (民部省) may refer to:

Minbu-shō (Ritsuryō)

The ministry, established by the Taihō Code and Ritsuryō laws, was one of the Eight Ministries, in the wing of four ministries reporting to the Controlling Board of the Left (左弁官局) out of eight ministries. As the name indicates, this body was concerned with oversight over the affairs of the common people, viewed as taxable producers of goods. The ministry maintained various records: the population census sent from the provinces, cadastral (real estate) records, and tax accounting records.

Ministerial authority under Yōrō Code

The Yōrō Code (a revised version of the Taihō Code that created the ministry), stipulates the powers vested in the ministry, under its Official Appointments statute (職員令). There it is stated that : In the above "all provinces" does not include the capital. The census for the aristocracy who had clan names (uji or kabane) etc. was under the purview of the Jibu-shō (Ministry of Civil Administration). And the ministry was not "directly responsible for the upkeep of roads, bridgees, etc.," but merely kept such records for taxation and tax transportation tracking purposes.

Popular Affairs certificate

The ministry issued order certificates or charters called the minbushō-fu (民部省符) to officials and provincial governors (kokushi). The shōen system recognized private ownership of reclaimed rice-paddy lands, but did not automatically confer tax-exemption (as some misleading dictionary definitions suggest). From the early Heian period, the tax-exempt or leniency status was ratified by the certificate or charter (kanshōfu (官省符)) issued either by this ministry or the Great Council (daijō-kan) itself. (See kanshōfu-shō (官省符荘)). In the Jōgan (貞観) period (859–877) occurred a breakdown of the Ritsuryō system under the Fujiwara no Yoshifusa regime, with authorities of the ministries absorbed by the Great Council. The decree of Jōgan 4, VII, 27 (August 826) essentially stripped the ministry of its control over the tax-leniency policy, ordaining that all applications for tax relief would be decided completely by the Great Council of State (daijō-kan), and its ruling delivered directly to the countries by the Great Council's certificate (daijō-kan fu). The ministry still issued certificates for exemptions on the shōen estates, but this was just rubberstamping decisions from above, as before. These changes in the exercise of administration were codified in the Jogan shiki (貞観式) and later Engishiki. The ministry was thus reduced to processing clerical responsibilities concerning the provinces.

Hierarchy

The Minbu-shō (民部省) was headed by the minister, whose office was ordinarily filled by a son or close relative of the emperor, of the fourth grade or higher. Under the Ministry were two bureaus: The Shukei-ryō, or Kazue-no-tsukasa (主計寮), the "Bureau of Computation" or "Bureau of Statistics." was in charge of two forms of taxes, the chō (調) and the yō (庸corvée). The yō was a form of conscripted compulsory labor, or more often the goods paid to be exempt from the obligation. The Shuzei-ryō or Chikara-ryō (主税寮), the "Tax Bureau," was in charge of the third form of tax, the so (租). The three forms of taxes were known as Soyōchō (租庸調) under the Ritsuryō system. The Rinin (廩院) was an ancillary facility to this ministry that stored a portion of the corvée tax (yō of soyōchō) and nenryō shōmai (年料舂米), which were distributed during ceremonies and functions.

Personages who held offices

List of translated aliases

Explanatory notes

Citations