During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese engaged in comprehensive field research in rural China. One of their objects was to probe into whether there existed any communal mechanism in Chinese villages comparable to Japanese villages, which could assist the Japanese to rule rural China. How did the communal mechanism function in Japanese villages? How could the communal mechanism of a village help the government of Japan to rule over the countryside? How did the Japanese transplant their experience of rural governance to rural China? This article focuses on these questions through reexamining the evolution of rural governance in modern Japan and rural North China under Japanese occupation during the Second Sino-Japanese War.