The government legislated certain local autonomy after reconsidering the failure of the daiku-shoku system (a centralized district system that abolished all pre-existing towns, villages and their offices and institutions), which was designed to make all local systems extensions of the central government.
地方制度をすべて中央政府の延長にしようとした大区小区制の失敗に対する反省から、一定の地方自治を法定した。