Introduction and Implementation of Milk Business Regulations in the Japanese Colonial Period

This study focuses on the Milk Business Regulations enacted in 1911 as a law that c ontained a n ew p aradigm of food sanitation in t he J apanese colonial period, and investigates the changes in the food sanitation system which was essential to the milk supply, for instances, how the system was formed and improved. Food sanitation was institutionalized as a part of sanitation administration as the matter was in line with the development of modern industrial society, such as the expansion of processed food ingredients and food additives, and packaging technology. Interestingly, unlike the healthcare area in which Koreans or the westerners were engaged and made contributions, although superficially, the sanitation system in food area was initiated by the Japanese and the active lead of Japanese food processing and distribution industry from the Japanese government’s own need since 1900s. With this background, the food sanitation-related systems after the Japan-Korea annexation treaty became more refined and concretized in the Japanese Resident-General period while restoring the legal restrictions that were partially enforced in the Japanese settlement areas. Milk was one of the food items that represented both the food culture influenced by Japan and the context of the colonial period. As such, after the Annexation the entire phase of milk business, including the import of milk cow and dairy farm operation, milking, and sale and distribution of milk, was mostly led by the Japanese. In the milk production and distribution, sanitation was more emphasized and it required difficult and meticulous processing, such as raising milk cows and dairy farm operation, milking, processing, and sale and distribution. Because of that, the Japanese Government-General of Korea unified the fragmentary rules concerning the milk business which had been introduced, partially, under the Japanese Resident-General of Korea, by enacting the 1911 Milk Business Regulations (Japanese Government-General of Korea, Police Commissioner’s Order No. 7), and prepared the legal basis for milk business, covering from the definition and scope to the production and distribution of milk and dairy products. Afterwards, reflecting the changed trend of the time, the 1911 Regulations were revised in full scale in 1940 as the Joseon Milk Business Regulations (Japanese Government-General of Korea Order No. 114), but the new law was simply maintaining the general context of the 1911 Regulations. The 1940’s revised version was in fact abolished and replaced with the enactment of Food Sanitation Act which was enforced on January 20, 1962 (Legislation No. 1007). Since this paper has focused on the legal history of milk introduction and distribution in the Japanese colonial period, it did not look into the real life situations related to the milk regulations of the time. Milk production and consumption was limited in that period, and should be studied further in the future.