JPSTATE 10_24 LECTURE (October 24, 2022, Monday)

Taisho Democracy 1912-1926

● Taisho Era
- Broadening of suffrage; Universal suffrage for males above 25 years of age
(1925)
- Increasing use of parliamentary practices
- Increasing role of political parties
- Rising public activism
- Economic prosperity due to boom in industrial production
- Rising social tensions and antagonisms brought by industrialization

● Other Factors of the Taisho Era

- Entered WW1 on the side of the Allied Powers and seized German holdings in
China and Islands in the Pacific (1914)
- Problems of Inflation (1915)
- Founding of the Japan Communist Party (1922)
- Great Kanto Earthquake (1923)
- Discrimination against Japanese in the US (1924)
- Adoption of multi-member district electoral system (1925)
- Enactment of Public System Preservation Law (1925)

Growth in Power and Influence of Political Parties

1. Issues on “transcendental” vs party cabinet
- Prime Minister and Cabinet were appointed by the Emperor
- No Oligarchs accepted the idea of party cabinet in 1890
2. Veto power of the lower House over budget
- Rising government expenditures
3. Division among Meiji Oligarchs over political parties
- Yamagata (no concessions) vs Ito (accomodation)
4. PM Hara Takashi(Hara Kei) as first party Prime minister (1918)
- Pioneer of patronage system in Japan
Political Parties’ gradual rise to power

Characteristics of Taisho Political System

- Remained elitist
- Development of two-party politics
- Seiyukai and Doshikai/Kenseikai/Mineseito (anti-coalition)

- Accountable party systems

- Extension of civic rights
- Rise of democratic political philosophies
- Ambivalence in the constitutional structure
- Imperial Sovereignty but no direct imperial rule
- Ministers were individually responsible to the Emperor
- Lack of collective responsibility of the cabinet

Competing Elites
(1) Members of the Upper House
(a) Conservative
(b) A check on the lower house
(c) Imperial family
(d) Nobles
(e) Deputies
(2) Advisors to the Emperor
(a) Conservative
(b) Genro
(c) Group of Former Prime Ministers
(d) Privy Council
 (3) Bureaucratic leaders
(a) Conservative and reformist
(b) “Servants of the Emperor”
(c) Proud and prestigious
(d) Technical competence
(4) The Military
(a) Independent
(b) “Right of autonomous command”
(c) Strong influence over foreign policy
(5) Business Elite
(a) Zaibatsu
(b) Close ties with government
(c) Provide contributions to political campaigns

Political parties and Japanese elites

- Mediating role among elites
- Interpenetrated various power centers
- Closer bonds between military leadership and parties
- 1925, Tanaka Giichi (an army general) became president of Seiyukai
- Recruitment of former bureaucrats
- Formation of alliances in the upper house
- Political parties did not advocate for popular sovereignty
- People were not ready yet
-Yoshino Sakuzo: Taisho democracy was government on behalf of the
people;Rule of ‘moral’ elites

Social turmoil during Taisho era

- Social unrest
- Rice riots of 1918
- Military labor
- Rise of labor disputes
- Increase of labor unions
- Tenancy disputes (256 in 1918 to more than 2,700 by 1926)
- Increase of tenant unions (173 in 1917 to 4,582 by 1927)
- Radical ideologies
- Influx of radical thoughts
- Russian revolution; Wilsonian democracy
- Establishment of Communist party in 1922
- 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake
- Loss of lives and properties
- Anti-Korean sentiment
Government Responses
1. Accomodation
- Law on Universal Male Suffrage
2. Repression and tightening authoritarianism
- Police crackdown on communist and anarchist
- Peace Preservation Law on 1925
- Limited the range

Public Security/Peace Preservation Law of 1925

- Intended for socialsit and communists
- To Supress political dissent
- Curtailment of freedom of speech, expression, and press
- “Altering the Kokutai” was puishable by 10 years imprisonment

Economic Crisis, Latter half of 1920s

- Economic Depression
- High inflation (1915)
- Agriculture stagnated
- Declining world market for Japanese products
- Exacerbated social unrest

Japanese Women and the State: Taisho Era

- Could no vote or be voted
- Could not hold government positions
- Prohibited from joining political groups
- Police law of 1900: prohibited women from attending political meetings
- Female education (home economics)
- To become “good wife, wise mother”
- Limited to domestic role
- Efficient management of household
- Upbringing of children
- Frugality
- Hard work

Japanese Women and the State: Taisho Era (Continuation)

- Compulsory Education of 6 Years
- Emergence of professional women ; Teaching, Nursing, Clerical Positions
- Rise of Women Organizations
- Demands for Political Rights and Gender Equality
- Worked with Bureaucrats
- Members of the State, knowledge of Politics in 1920s
- 1922, allowed to attend political discussion meetings
- Patriotic training of children
- Right of suffrage for women was defeated in the House of peers
Agrarian Society - Worsening Problem
- Agriculture sector was export-oriented;source of foreign exchange
- Source of Government revenue through land tax
- Tenants bore the cost of industrialization
- Increase in tenancy farming; worsened by land tax
- Financed armament, new colonial possessions

Political Parties During the Taisho Era

- Not mass-based, people could not identify their own interests and aspirations
- Conservative orientation; poor record in enacting reform legislation; promoted the
interests of the landlords and business
- Intermarriage- Politicians, landlords, and businesses
- Political Contributions
- Failure to justify themselves within the realm of japanese values
- Competing interests, rule of majority, increased partisanship