SNA (Tokyo) — In 1898, Shigenobu Okuma became prime minister of Japan, leading the first and only government of the Meiji Era formed by the opposition to the Genro oligarchs.

Transcript

On June 30, 1898, Shigenobu Okuma became prime minister of Japan.

It was a groundbreaking administration in many ways. First of all, the sequential rotation of the premier’s office between Choshu and Satsuma had finally ended. But the bigger shock was that the opposition parties had come to power for the first and only time in Meiji Japan.

They did not acquit themselves well. Although the Constitutional Party was theoretically a united organization, it was only about a week old when the Okuma Cabinet was formed, and old loyalties to the Progressive Party and Liberal Party remained strong.

When Okuma appointed his own former Progressive Party men to more Cabinet seats than former Liberal Party men, it invited internal antagonism and disunity.

Moreover, the Genro with the exception of Hirobumi Ito were actively hostile to the party government and looking for ways, together with their bureaucratic allies, to bring the Okuma administration down as soon as possible.

It was at the outset of the Okuma Cabinet that Aritomo Yamagata would be able to establish the fateful principle that the Army and Navy ministers could not be appointed by party men—including the prime minister—and were in theory responsible directly to the Emperor.

Yamagata’s main protege in the Cabinet, Army Minister Taro Katsura, was leading efforts to sabotage the Okuma regime from within, plotting together with the Genro outside the Cabinet.

The Constitutional Party government did have two successes. They won a crushing election victory in the August 1898 election, sweeping about 80% of the seats in the Imperial Diet. They were also able to terminate, for a couple of years, repressive official regulations regarding freedom of speech.

But it was a speech which helped trigger the Cabinet’s downfall. When Education Minister Yukio Ozaki referred to a hypothetical future of Japan being a republic, Okuma’s conservative enemies pounced, claiming that it reflected his lack of commitment to the Imperial system.

The bigger issue was that the aggrieved former Liberal Party men rebelled against Okuma’s leadership, and the Constitutional Party split in half after only four months of unity. Taisuke Itagaki resigned as Home Minister on November 8, 1898.

Okuma intended to form a new Cabinet with the former Liberal Party men excluded, but he was forced to give up by Army Minister Taro Katsura, who informed him that his permission to form a Cabinet had been provided by the Emperor on the understanding that it was Okuma’s joint mandate together with Itagaki.

The Okuma Cabinet had lasted only 132 days, making it the shortest of the Meiji Era.

Shigenobu Okuma will return.

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