GENERAL HEADQUARTERS
SUPREME COMMANDER FOR THE ALLIED POWERS

APO 500
4 February 1948

AG 602 (4 Feb 48) NR/A
(SCAPIN-1855)

MEMORANDUM FOR	JAPANESE GOVERNMENT.
SUBJECT	Rural Land Reform.

1. Reference is made to:
a. Memorandum for Japanese Government, file AG 602.6 (9 Dec 45) CIE, (SCAPIN 411), subject as above, dated 9 December 1945.
b. Owner-Farmer Establishment and Special Measures Law, Law No. 43, 21 October 1946.
c. Agricultural Land Adjustment Law, Law No. 67, 2 April 1938, as revised by Law No. 64, 28 December 1945, and by Law No. 42, 21 October 1946.
2. The Owner-Farmer Establishment and Special Measures Law and the Agricultural Land Adjustment Law were enacted in accordance with the reference memorandum, in order to eliminate the feudal system of land tenure and remove economic obstacles to the redistribution of the land on an equitable and democratic basis. Since the enactment of these land reform laws, however, efforts have been made by certain adversely affected interests to obstruct the accomplishment of the rural land reform program.
3. The firm implementation of the Land Reform Program is essential to the creation in Japan of a society which is truly free and democratic and, as a consequence, it has become one of the foremost obaectives of the Japanese people as well as of the Allied occupation. Therefore, the strict, vigorous and fearless enforcement of the above-mentioned laws is both imperative and indispensable.
4. Accordingly, it is directed that:
a. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will instruct prefectural and local agricultural land commissions to purchase without delay all land subject to Land Reform Law in accordance with existing procedures and without regard to unauthorized action by pressure organizations seeking to impede the objectives of the Land Reform Program.
b. The Japanese Government will take prompt and vigorous action againt any and all persons who, by bribery, intimidation or other unlawful means, obstruct the implementation of land reform measures. Reports of such action will be submitted to this headquarters.

FOR THE SUPREME COMMANDER:

R.M. LEVY,
Colonel, AGD,
Adjutant General.