Paper short abstract:

This paper considers the Medal of Honour Ordinance, the core of modern Japan’s state honours system for civilians. Through an examination of the system and a statistical analysis of the recipients, modern Japan’s state honour system is placed in the context of world history.

Paper long abstract:

Modern state honours started in Western Europe and spread around the world throughout the 19th-20th centuries. In Japan, a system was rapidly developed after the Meiji Restoration. As in Western countries, the recipients of the Orders were mainly the military personnel and civil servants. However, influenced by the system of early modern East Asia, state honours for civilians were rapidly institutionalised in the early Meiji Period. The core legislation is the Medals of Honour Ordinance (Hōshō Jōrei), which was promulgated in 1881 and continues to this day. This paper reveals the roles of modern Japan’s state honours system and places it in the context of world history.

First, the institutional evolution of the Medals of Honour Ordinance is introduced. Initially, there were three types of medals, the Medal with Red Ribbon, awarded to those who saved lives, the Medal with Green Ribbon, awarded to virtuous persons, and the Medal with Blue Ribbon, awarded to those who contributed to the public interest, each originating from the West, ancient China, and early modern Japan, respectively. Thereafter, in response to new national and social challenges, the types of medals and the subjects to which they were awarded changed constantly.

This paper presents a statistical analysis of the recipients. In line with institutional changes, the number of recipients doubled after WWI, with a further explosion from the 1940s onwards. In addition, while the majority of the recipients were initially leading figures in the local communities, from the 1920s onwards, as bureaucratic sectionalism progressed, outstanding people in individual fields such as education, health, social work, and academic inventions also became eligible.

The expansion of the honours system was also observed in 20th century Western Europe, but in the case of Japan, various contributions were viewed as manifestations of traditional ‘virtue’ and gradually became more strongly linked to the ideology of the Emperor System. Thus, while taking the form of Western-derived medals, the state honours for civilians in modern Japan had an East Asian context and were combined with the monarchy.