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Finally, they were to recruit new members. The membership roll of this organization was impressive and included cabinet-level officials such as Maejima Hisoka, Prince Konoe Atsumaro (1863-1904), Kikuji Dairoku, and Katō Hiroyuki (1836-1916). Other members included prominent educators such as Yano Fumio, Ueda Kazutoshi (1867-1937), Haga Yaichi (1867-1927), Inoue Tetsujirō (1855-1944), Ōtsuki Fumihiko (1847-1928), Miyake Yonekichi (1860-1929), and Shiratori Kurakichi (1865-1942). The Genbun'itchi Society acted as a high-powered advocacy group and petitioned the Diet, unsuccessfully in 1901 and 1902, to create a government-sponsored oversight body to investigate Japanese. However, in 1903, they were successful in petitioning the Diet to create and fund Kokugo chōsa iinkai (National Language Research Council). Though this council has changed names several times and did not meet annually, a successor exists today in Japan.
National Language Research Council
The National Language Research Council (NLRC) of 1903 was led by Ueda Kazutoshi and Ōtsuki Fumihiko. Its official mandate was to investigate the Japanese language and determine which of the various dialects, if any, would be suitable to become the national standard. Though the wording in the directive was left intentionally vague to head off any early criticism from detractors outside of the capital, the committee members themselves presupposed that the Tokyo dialect, in part or in whole, would be adopted as the national standard. The NLRC also codified grammar, decided upon the fine points of writing characters, and agreed on standard pronunciation. In addition, the Council considered the continuing problem of the large number of kanji and their complexity. The members of this council were not revolutionaries. Most were very prominent educators, journalists and government officials. They reformed the language in a way that best suited the interests of the education system and the centralized state.
For NLRC manager Ueda Kazutoshi, language reform for its own sake was only one portion of the task to be completed. As an ardent ideologue, Ueda also firmly believed that the newly reformed language had to be successfully implemented, i.e., that all Japanese had both to learn and accept the language. These tasks could only be completed through the educational system, which was itself undergoing reform. Education Minister Kikuchi Dairoku, also a member of the Genbun'itchi Society, just happened to be in office at the same time a national curriculum for primary schools all over Japan was being implemented. This gave the NLRC even more influence. In 1903, Kikuchi instructed the textbook committee of the Ministry of Education to produce primary school textbooks written in the genbun'itchi style. These, of course, would be used by all students nationwide as they learned Japanese. By 1905, this series of textbooks had begun to find their way into classrooms all over Japan. The grammar of the language codified by the original NLRC and which first appeared in textbooks around 1905 still yields considerable authority.
By giving government sanction to use the genbun'itchi style in the national curriculum, and due to the efforts of the National Language Research Council, the foundation of modern Japanese had been laid. Nevertheless, both Ueda and Kikuchi knew that the task of teaching an entire nation a new language would take decades. Only government institutions could apply sufficient power to the various national institutions for the span of years required to make a national standard language possible.
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