SNA (Tokyo) — From 1898-1900, conservative Aritomo Yamagata returned as prime minister, largely reestablishing the dominance of Meiji oligarchs over the rising power of the elected political parties. Even then, however, he did have to make some compromises.

Transcript

On November 8, 1898, Aritomo Yamagata returned as prime minister of Japan.

The political party government’s inept and discreditable four months in office had helped bring the bureaucratic conservatives back into power with more strength and stability than before.

By this time, both the military and the most of the government bureaucracy looked to Yamagata as the top defender of their interests, and he in turn wished to insulate the administration from the influence of the political parties as much as possible.

Yamagata’s second Cabinet was filled with bureaucrats and military men.

But one thing that had changed is that Yamagata’s top protege, Army Minister Taro Katsura, was now his righthand man and effectively the co-manager of the administration.

Another thing which had changed is that even Yamagata recognized that he needed to come to an accommodation with one of the two main political parties and that a fully transcendental government was no longer practical.

Adopting a strategy proposed to him by Katsura, Yamagata agreed to form an alliance with Taisuke Itagaki and what had previously been called the Liberal Party, but had now adopted the Constitutional Party name.

Yamagata refused to let any political party men join his Cabinet, but in policy terms he formed a broad alliance with the Constitutional Party.

What Yamagata got out of the bargain was the crucial hike in the Land Tax which allowed him to finance the further expansion of the Imperial Army and Navy.

In turn, Yamagata’s government supported some Constitutional Party policies, such as electoral reforms that significantly expanded the number of people who could vote in Diet elections.

But the alliance remained an uneasy one because Yamagata was determined to limit the potential authority of elected politicians. For example, he arranged for the Emperor to issue new regulations that made it close to impossible for politicians to hold any office in the national bureaucracy other than Cabinet Minister.

Also, the Peace Police Law was enacted to deny any standing to labor unions, authorizing the violent suppression of labor strikes.

Yamagata never enjoyed being at the center of public attention, so having secured the military budget and having strengthened the position of the bureaucracy against the elected politicians, he began preparations to resign in the spring of 1900.

The intensifying crisis in northern China over the Boxer Rebellion, however, convinced him to stay on for a little while longer.

Under Yamagata’s authority, Japanese troops played a key role in protecting Western communities from the Chinese Boxers. Yamagata maneuvered skillfully both to help defeat the Boxers and to limit Great Power competition to divide up the Chinese Empire among themselves.

With the foreign policy crisis fading, Yamagata had first planned to recommend his deputy Taro Katsura to take over as prime minister. However, when Hirobumi Ito finally moved forward with his long-cherished plans to create a large pro-government political party, he realized that Ito needed to be one to take the reins.

Aritomo Yamagata resigned as prime minister on October 19, 1900, after a term of 1 year, 346 days.

He would never return to the top political office, but his influence from behind the scenes and through his many proteges would endure for decades to come.

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