Reshaping the administrative structure of Japan to conform with the emergency and the new summary authority demanded by the emergency, Suzuki announced at the present session of the diet that the empire was being divided into eight practically autonomous and self-sufficient regional governments-general. The first conference of their new heads was held in Tokyo last week and today the Times takes the opportunity to summarize the significance of the system. The trend has always been toward larger administrative units, it notes. The 305 prefectures set up in 1871 to take the place of feudal fiefs had been reduced to 46 by 1906. War necessities however have shown that even these 46 are still too many and too small. In partial response to the need for greater coordination regional administrative councils were established in 1943 but the system did not prove successful because it was fundamentally a conference of [illegible]. Under the new system of Governors-general with ample centralized authority will take the place of the councils. They will have cabinet rank, be responsible directly to the cabinet, and will exercise authority in their districts on behalf of all the ministers. In other words, they will be one-man cabinets for their respective regions. The system seems to be similar to that of the commissioner for different regions in the Philippines, established in the closing days of the Laurel regime.
Leon Ma. Guerrero
(March 24, 1915 — June 24, 1982). Lawyer, journalist and diplomat. Served in USAFFE (later, USFIP) in the press relations staff, then assigned to Corregidor; upon surrender of USFIP and release from internment, served as a technical assistant to Jorge B. Vargas in the Philippine Executive Commission, then resumed broadcasting (station PIAM) under the same pseudonym he had used prior to the Japanese Occupation: Ignacio Javier. He then joined the diplomatic service of the Second Republic of the Philippines, assigned to the Philippine embassy in Tokyo under Jorge B. Vargas, ambassador.
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