臺灣初次地方選舉：日本殖民政府的制度性操作

First Local Election of Taiwan: An Analysis of Institutional Manipulation of Japanese Colonial Government

1935 年臺灣地方自治制度改正，首度賦予臺灣住民自治權，允許25 歲以上的成年男子經由選舉選出半數的市會、街庄協議會與州會議員。然而，在臺日本人居人口少數的劣勢下，臺灣總督府何以無視於選舉的後果可能使占多數的臺灣人贏得選舉，並使殖民政府的政治與經濟利益盡失？本文研究發現，1935 年臺灣初次的市街庄（協）議會選舉中，為了防止選舉機制不利於人口居少數的日本人，臺灣總督府透過侷限賦稅結構，使富裕的地主、自耕農及商賈，尤其是日本地主和資本家，以及勞動所得較高的日本人更容易取得選舉權，並利用放寬居住限制，增加日本人的選舉權人數，終使全臺九個市會選舉中，臺灣人成年男子比例為74.2%，卻僅得到48.8%的席次，反觀日本人成年男子比例為25.8%，卻得到51.2%的席次。1936 年的臺灣州會選舉中，總督府則是利用日本1925 年採行的中選區制、選區劃分，以及選區規模的比重分配，提高了日本人在州會中當選的席次；在間接選舉的制度下，更透過與官選臺灣人市街庄（協）議員的恩侍關係，促使他們轉而投票給日本人；又在單記非讓渡制中，臺灣人同室操戈造成高票落選，使1936 年州會選舉中，定額76 名的州會議員，日本人當選席次多達36 名。

In 1935, the Japanese colonial government held the first local election, allowing male adults above the age of 25 years to elect half of the representatives in city and village assemblies. On the surface, this policy seemed to be an act of granting self-government to Taiwanese. However, dominance by the majority Taiwanese would imply the minority Japanese losing representation in the government. Hence, well aware that such would threaten their political and economic interests and undermine colonial governance, the Japanese colonial government took preventive measures to prevent landslide victory of Taiwanese in the local election. Specifically, measures executed to establish political advantage for the Japanese and to ensure their dominance included the following. First, universal suffrage was extended only to those who would afford to pay 5-dollar local taxes, thus restricting the voting population to the rich and the powerful. As a result, only wealthy landlords and merchants, and in particular, the Japanese of substantial means and high income were allowed to vote. Second, by releasing the restriction for residency, more Japanese were granted citizenship with the right of suffrage, thus ensuring higher chance of Japanese being elected. Third, through electoral redistricting, the colonial government created Japanese-majority districts, which were also given larger representation in the city assembly. Fourth, by adopting indirect prefectural election, the responsibility of choosing the candidates rest in the hands of a selected few, leading to cronyism and canvass of votes. Finally, introducing the single-nontransferable vote system resulted in vote-splitting among the Taiwanese, thus undermining their prospect of winning in the local election.