Joint Research (Type III）
Population Problem and Development Policy in the Philippines: A Research
through the Analysis of Newspapers and Public Documents
Project Leader: SUZUKI, Nobutaka, Graduate School of Humanities and Social
Sciences, University of Tsukuba
（Term：2011 - 2012）
- Joint Seminars in 2011 Fiscal Year
- Outline of Joint Research
- One serious problem specialists in and scholars of Philippine Studies in
Japan cannot overlook is the absence in Japanese collections of English
newspapers of Japan from 1930 to 1945, when the Philippines was an American
colony. The Center for Southeast Asian Studies is expected to play a vital
role in filling the gaps by offering easy access to serial periodicals
to prospective library users, in order to advance further academic research
on colonial state building. In particular, this collaborative research
aims to purchase the English newspaper the Tribune for the period from 1930 to 1945 from Cornell University, United States,
through the analysis of which research members are expected to examine
the population problem and its impact on Philippine development policies
in the American colonial and post-independent periods.
- Purpose of Joint Research
-
The purpose of this research project is to examine population pressure
and its impact on the policy formulation on Philippine national development.
A gradual increase in population immediately after the American colonization
of the Philippines became so marked mainly due to the introduction of new
modern scientific knowledge such as public health. The population increase
led to drastic social changes. For the majority of Filipinos, who are dominantly
Catholic, strong opposition to population control from various social forces,
particularly religious institutions, was most likely. Even before World
War II, the imbalance between population and land distribution, which caused
agrarian problems and labor disputes, was viewed as a serious political
threat that resulted in frequent social instability.
On the other hand, after the Philippines won its independence from the
United States, the growth of the population, which occurred much more quickly
than the growth of productivity and job availability in the labor market,
has remained the most important domestic issue to be considered in development
policy formulation. Focusing on the interplay between population increase
and socio-economic development of the 20th century, this research aims
to analyze the overreaching impacts of a gradual but threatening population
increase in formulating development policy of the Philippines. It is expected
that the English newspaper the Tribune (1930-1945) will provide indispensable information for this research project
with regard to the Commonwealth period (1935 - 1946), when Filipino nationalists
prepared to explore new directions in building a new nation-state. With
the purchase of the English newspaper the Tribune (1930-1945), which is at present only available in a few university libraries
abroad, the Center expects to possess a rich collection of a wide range
of documents, particularly serial periodicals such as newspapers and public
documents, in addition to both the Foronda and Ocampo collections, each
of which has approximately 7,000 books and 1,000 books respectively. It
is hoped that the researchers will, through careful scrutiny of the research
materials of the Center, consider the historical process of Philippine
development from a new perspective emphasizing the active involvement of
Filipino elite politicians in political decision-making.
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