On Thursday, September 17, a seminar will be held in Grandori Room (Building 4), starting at 9:30 CET.
The seminar will be given by Takanori Hoshino, Professor at the University of the Ryukyus, Japan, and is titled “Prewar Reforms of Human Waste Disposal Policies in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya”.
Abstract
This research examines changes in the night soil disposal policy in Japan before World War II and compares the situation in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya. In the early modern period in Japan, human waste had value as manure, so farmers and night soil peddlers bought it. That situation did not change in the Meiji era. After the latter half of the 1910s, urbanization and the spread of other fertilizers led to a decrease in the value of human waste, that collapsed the network of night soil circulation that developed in the early modern period. Local governments promoted municipalization of human waste disposal, taking into account not only urban sanitation but also fertilizer demand in suburban agriculture. As part of the rural economic revitalization plan, rural areas near Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya utilized urban human waste, saving on fertilizer purchases and revitalizing their agricultural management.
