A predate this period. Even the Allies who defeated Japan in 1945 realized the following: Among the terms for surrender given in the Potsdam Declaration, reference is made to the removal of obstacles to “the revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Japanese people.” This demonstrates the need to look back at Japan’s political history in the period before World War II.
Japan experienced a surge of liberalism in the early 20th century that was dubbed “Taishō Democracy” by historians in the 1950s.(1) The term “Taishō Democracy” refers to the flourishing of new ways of thinking, the strengthening of social movements, and the development of party politics in a period centered on the Taishō era (the reign of Emperor Taishō, 1912–26). From 1924 to 1932, seven successive cabinets were formed by political parties, laying the foundation for true party politics in the Diet; this was praised at the time as “the normal course of constitutional government” and had a high degree of legitimacy. In this article, I will thailand email list consider the centenary of World War I from the perspective of Taishō democracy, outlining the history of party politics that developed in Japan’s interwar period.(2)
An Era of Change in Japanese Politics
Japan declared war on Germany in August 1914, entering World War I on the side of the Allies shortly after conflict broke out in Europe. At the time, Japanese politics were in an era of change. Following the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867 and the formal restoration of imperial rule under Emperor Meiji (the Meiji Restoration) the following year, Japan embarked on the construction of a new set of political institutions suitable for a modern nation state, including its first constitution, the Constitution of the Empire of Japan (Meiji Constitution), adopted in 1889, and a national legislature, the Imperial Diet, established in 1890. In the early years after the establishment of the Diet, the government continued to be dominated by hanbatsu, the cliques of former samurai from the Satsuma and Chōshū domains who played leading roles in the Meiji Restoration. However, in the early 20th century, the dominance of hanbatsu was challenged by political parties, in particular the Rikken Seiyūkai (Friends of the Constitutional Government), a party founded in 1900 by Itō Hirobumi.