Japan entered a new era of politics in the 20th century in two senses. The first was that the older leaders of the Meiji Restoration era passed the torch to a new generation. The second was that the political order changed from one heavily influenced by the genrō, senior statesmen of the hanbatsu, to a more open system of government. From 1901 to 1913 power alternated between the next generation leaders Katsura Tarō, a Chōshū bureaucrat and former army general, and Saionji Kinmochi, who succeeded Itō Hirobumi as head of the Seiyūkai, the majority party in the House of Representatives.
This transitional stability did not last. In 1912, the first year of the Taishō era, Japanese politics entered into crisis. When Saionji failed to increase the army by two divisions, the army refused to supply a minister, and his second cabinet fell. The first Movement to Protect Constitutional Government erupted with calls for the abolition of hanbatsu government. Under the Meiji Constitution, the prime thailand email list minister was appointed by the emperor, with selection in practice made through discussions among the genrō, but the new movement called for "the normal course of constitutional government"—a prime minister chosen by the majority party in the House of Representatives (the lower house of the Diet). Social pressure reached a fever pitch in the Taishō Political Crisis of 1913, forcing Katsura, who had just replaced Saionji and begun his third term as prime minister, to resign after just over 50 days in office. A naval corruption scandal in early 1914 brought further outrage and political upheaval.
Hara Takashi and the First Cabinet of the Party of Japan
Prime Minister Hara Takashi. © Jiji.
Prime Minister Hara Takashi. © Jiji.
In some ways, World War I spurred the development of party politics in Japan, though in other ways it held it back. Katō Takaaki served as foreign minister in Ōkuma Shigenobu's second cabinet, handling diplomacy relating to Japan's entry into the war. He was the leader of the Rikken Dōshikai (Constitutional Friends Association), originally founded by Katsura Tarō, which opposed the Seiyūkai in the Diet, and sought to remove the genrō from the decision-making process. However, there were doubts about the swiftness of the government's resolve to go to war, combined with domestic and international criticism of the Twenty-One Demands, an ultimatum that Japan attempted to impose on the Chinese government in 1915.