Komaba International Students House, the Baojia system, and Collective Punishment

Japan once implemented the old Chinese mutual-responsibility system called Baojia (保甲) in colonial Taiwan. In this traditional system, when one person commits an offense, the group of persons to which the criminal belongs are all held responsible. Of course Japan itself, and indeed most pre-modern societies have had similar practices throughout history. Unfortunately, collective punishment for an individual’s misdeeds remains a practice in many places today. These include some military basic training camps, a few despotic boarding schools for children, and the Komaba International Student House near Tokyo University.

A community of Ministry of Education research students/scholars (adults in their mid-20s to early 30s) live together in this very reasonably priced dormitory run by the AIEJ (Association of International Education, Japan) while they receive a generous scholarship to support their studies from the Japanese government. I lived here too, but moved out after only a few months because I got sick of being treated like a child. I still visit friends from time to time and today I see that things haven’t changed much. The current director is a little bit of an arrogant megalomaniac who believes he is a lord in a kingdom of foreign monkeys.

The most recent incident involves a fire in the kitchen of the first floor of one of the buildings. Many of the students cook in the kitchen and they leave their rice cookers and pots and pans in the kitchen. One person apparently did something that created a fire, filling the kitchen with smoke. The guilty party did not report their crime and no one knows who is responsible. The great lord director, in his infinite wisdom, decided to deal with this by holding the entire floor responsible for the crime. The kitchen, and everyone’s rice cookers, pots, pans – basically what all the students who actually cook their meals every day need to get by, was locked up and a sign today hangs there which reads that the kitchen will be closed, “until the person who caused this comes to the Director.”

Basically the first floor “bao” is being held collectively responsible for one individual’s crime. Perhaps they will talk amongst themselves and a snitch will turn the culprit in, a result that the original baojia system was designed to encourage. The Director explains that he is waiting for another result. Last time he did this, the students all got together and petitioned him to relieve them of their punishment. In his benevolence, he heard their pleas and forgave them, but, he says, by forcing them to band together and beg forgiveness as a group, he got them to admit they were, “a single community” who all had to take responsibility for each other’s mistakes. So this time, he says, he is also waiting for all of the students to together beg their overlord’s mercy.

Being in the dorm today, and finding this to be a ridiculous state of affairs, I decided to create a poster to put just underneath the poster on the kitchen door. It essentially pretends to be a declaration of the administration stating that it will henceforth be using the Baojia system and goes as follows:

駒場留学生会館における保甲法実施宣言

最近駒場留学生会館で様々な事件が起きました。その結果、皆さんの安全を守るために保甲法を実施することに決定しました。

保甲法というのは中国の清朝が全国的に施行した隣保制度です。民衆は自警団として組織化され、犯罪を防止するための政策です。自分の組織に属する他の者が犯罪を起こせば、その「保」の全員は責任を取らなければなりません。

この大変効果的な制度を日本の政府も植民地時代の台湾で実行していました。これから、留学生会館の皆さんも「保」と「甲」という単位として組織され、迷惑行為がある度に、お互いに責任を取ろう！

保と甲への登録に関する詳細は後日お知らせいたします。何かご質問があればオフィスまでお越しください。あなたたちの安全と快適な生活を守るためであることをご了承ください。

English Translation:

Komaba International Student Dormitory to Implement Mutual-Responsibility Unit Policy

Recently there have been a number of troublesome incidents in our dormitory. In order to protect the safety of our residents, we have decided to implement a new mutual-responsibility unit policy or the “Hokôhô” or “Baojia” system.

The Baojia system was as neighborhood surveillance policy implemented all over imperial China in the Qing period. The system, which was implemented for the purpose of preventing crime, organized people into groups which acted as local surveillance units. If a crime was committed, the entire group would have to take responsibility for the crime.

Japan’s government also implemented this incredibly effective system in colonial Taiwan. From this point forth, the Komaba International Student Dormitory will be dividing all students into “bao” and “jia” units, and whenever there are any incidents, let the appropriate group together assume responsibility!

Please stay tuned for more information on the registration process for your 保 and 甲 here at the dormitory. If you have any questions, please speak to the administration. Remember, we are doing this for your safety and comfort.

I then added a line at the bottom explaining the satirical nature of the contents of the poster and that you don’t need to register for a “bao” yet.