Imperial Rule Assistance Association

(Taisei Yokusan Kai), Japanese bureaucratic organization of the fascist type from 1940 to 1945. It was formed after the dissolution of bourgeois political parties. The Imperial Rule Assistance Association was headed by a president, a position held by the nation’s prime minister. In the prefectures, districts, towns, and villages there were local sections; the entire administrative apparatus was appointed by the president for one year. Various mass organizations were subordinated to the Imperial Rule Assistance Association (the Association of Great Japan to Serve the Fatherland Through Production, the Youth Party of Great Japan, and others). On June 13, 1945, shortly before the capitulation of Japan in World War II, the association was dissolved by the Japanese government, which hoped to create the impression that a liberalization of the regime had taken place in the country.