A rapid shift of population from the countryside to the cities is, historically speaking, one of the characteristic features of urban society during the period of industrial revolution. (it is beyond the scope of this paper to examine the forces that induced landless peasants to flock to the cities.) Japan's industrial revolution is said to have occurred from about the 1880s and continued through the early part of the twentieth century. During this period, the vigorous development of industrial capital took place, particularly during the 1890s. This process was also accompanied by the over-concentration of people in Tokyo whose popu amounted to nearly 1.4 million in 1889(the national population at this time being around 40 million). This change brought with it severe social and economic dislocations which adversely affected the lives and livelihoods of the urban masses. To be sure, the difficulties experienced by the average city dweller, collectively referred t as the urban problem," were also present to some extent in premodern society. However, the anarchic concentration of industrial capital in the city coupled with the disorderly accumulation of labor power combined in this early stage of development to plunge the urban population ever deeper into poverty