SNA (Tokyo) — In early 1924, bureaucrat Keigo Kiyoura reluctantly agreed to become premier, but the frustration of the political parties about once again being passed over created a challenge which Kiyoura was not able to tame.

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On January 7, 1924, Keigo Kiyoura became prime minister of Japan.

He had been considered for the office several times before, and he came particularly close a decade earlier in 1914, before the Genro eventually turned to Shigenobu Okuma instead.

Kiyoura was the third protege of the late Genro Aritomo Yamagata to become prime minister, but unlike the previous two—Taro Katsura and Masatake Terauchi—he was not from the Army but rather had been Yamagata’s top aide at the Home Ministry, designing Japan’s first modern police forces.

Kiyoura was the third prime minister in a row who was not a political party man, and he didn’t really want the job. His difficult challenge was that most elected lawmakers had by this time become frustrated that administrative power was repeatedly being kept out of their hands, largely at the initiative of Genro Kinmochi Saionji.

This time, all three major political party leaders refused to support the new administration, and instead were turning to the people and threatening to revive a popular protest movement as had been the case during the Taisho Political Crisis more than a decade earlier.

However, the majority political party—the Constitutional Association of Political Friends—was still beset by serious internal division, and this offered Kiyoura a possible opportunity to find his political balance.

Indeed, the majority party formally split at this time, with Korekiyo Takahashi adopting a confrontational stance against the administration, but an even larger number of lawmakers defecting to the leadership of Takejiro Tokonami and creating the True Constitutional Friends Party.

This new party effectively became the ruling party supporting the Kiyoura government, though it did not possess a majority in the House of Representatives.

It was clear that if Kiyoura were to stabilize his administration, a general election needed to be held and the True Constitutional Friends Party gain a majority, or at least a plurality of the seats.

This general election came on May 10, 1924, but the clear winner was neither of these two, but instead the Constitutional Politics Association led by Takaaki Kato. He was finally clawing his way into power after nearly a decade of struggle.

Kiyoura, who had anticipated that he was going to lose, left office on June 11, after a term of only 157 days. He recommended the restoration of political party government for the first time in two years, with Takaaki Kato as the next prime minister.

Genro Saionji despised the idea of having Kato take the top office, but he reluctantly agreed, seeing no alternative that wouldn’t have created major political and social upheaval.

As for Kiyoura, he never returned to the top office, but he played a role as a senior government adviser in several capacities for almost two more decades. He died of natural causes in 1942.

This article was originally published on February 19, 2023, in the “Japan and the World” newsletter. Become a Shingetsu News supporter on Patreon.