From the beginning of the Meiji period, national highways were constructed to encourage the development of rural areas, with Tokyo as the starting point, extending to the port cities of Yokohama, Ōsaka, Kōbe, Nagasaki, and Hakodate. Priority was given to these cities and to roads leading to prefectural government offices and mil-itary bases. However, under the Rules for Local Taxes announced in 1878 funding responsibility was shifted to the prefectures and mu-nicipalities, with subsidies from the state being small and few in num-ber. Compared with the rail system the development of roads be-tween local areas lagged behind. One of the likely reasons for this is that, unlike in the West where roads had developed out of paths for horse-drawn vehicles, carriageways had not developed in Japan dur-ing the Edo period. Construction of a state-run telegraph system also began at an early stage, in 1868, and by 1881 an all-Japan trunk line network was al-most complete. The telephone came much later than the telegraph in 1878, one year after its initial introduction to Japan. The first prac-tical use of the telephone was made between the Ministry of Home Affairs and police headquarters. After that it was installed in various government, railway, and large company offices but the decision for it to become a state-run service was not made until 1888. The devel-opment of the telephone network was slow and it was not until 1907 that an expansion plan was drawn up. By 1912 almost the entire country was covered. Further, in 1871, the government issued a Grand Council of State edict to establish a postal service, and from March the system began, 161
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