Land Survey Project

Overview

The Land Survey Project was carried out from 1910 to 1918, immediately after the Annexation of Korea by Japan, by the Temporary Land Survey Bureau of the Government-General of Korea. The bureau surveyed land across the country and investigated owners, land values, and topography, producing land registers and cadastral maps. Through this process, exclusive ownership of land was legally confirmed, and the Government-General secured a stable basis for collecting land tax as well as state land. It is regarded as the starting point of economic policy during the Japanese colonial period and as a representative colonial policy of the military rule era of the 1910s.

Background

Land institutions in the late Joseon period often had ownership (by landlords) and cultivation rights (such as the right of dodo) overlapping on a single plot, and the land registers (yangan) had become old and no longer matched actual conditions. The Korean Empire attempted to create a system of land ownership certification through its land survey and land registration project of 1898–1904, but this was interrupted by the Russo-Japanese War. During the Residency-General period, Japan promulgated the "Rules on Land and Building Certification" in 1906, legalizing land ownership by foreigners (Japanese), and in 1908 it established the Oriental Development Company to secure land. In March 1910, the Korean Empire government set up a Land Survey Bureau.

Progress

• 30 September 1910: The ordinance establishing the Temporary Land Survey Bureau of the Government-General of Korea was promulgated, taking over the work of the Korean Empire's Land Survey Bureau.
• 13 August 1912: The "Land Survey Ordinance" was promulgated. Landowners were required to report their address, name, the location and category (jimok) of their land, and its area within a set period (the declaration principle).
• Survey contents: The survey was divided into three areas: ownership survey, land value survey, and topographic and geological survey. Through surveying, each parcel was assigned a lot number, and land registers, tax assessment registers, and cadastral maps were prepared.
• Adjudication and disputes: Based on the reported information, the director of the Temporary Land Survey Bureau "adjudicated" (sajeong) owners and boundaries, and this carried the same effect as a final court judgment. Those who objected could apply for a ruling from the Higher Land Survey Committee. Disputes over the boundaries between state land and private land broke out in many places.
• November 1918: The project was completed. Subsequently, the revision of the "Chosen Land Tax Ordinance" (1918) established a system of levying land tax based on land value.