SNA (Tokyo) — From 1924-1926, Takaaki Kato led an administration which marked the pinnacle of the period of “Taisho Democracy.” Its crowning achievement was the passage of a law granting voting rights to all male Japanese age 25 or older, regardless of economic status.

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On June 11, 1924, Takaaki Kato became prime minister of Japan.

His arrival marked the return of political party government after two years of non-party Cabinets, and it was more broadly a victory for democracy within the Japanese political system.

Since Kato’s party did not have its own majority in the House of Representatives, the administration launched as a three-party coalition, partnering with the parties led by Korekiyo Takahashi and Tsuyoshi Inukai.

Less than a month later, the last of the original Genro, Masayoshi Matsukata, passed away. While Kinmochi Saionji was still alive and active, as an institution it could be said that Matsukata’s death marked the final passing of the Meiji Genro system, which had stood at the heart of Japanese politics for decades.

It was apt timing, as the three-party coalition brought with it a breath of a new liberal and reformist spirit, and a desire to fix problems which had been left unaddressed for far too long.

One of the Kato Cabinet’s leading lights was new Finance Minister Osachi Hamaguchi, who had a zeal for cutting government expenses and reducing the national budget. Understanding the trend of the times, even the Imperial Japanese Army grudgingly accepted budget cuts.

Change was afoot in diplomatic policy as well, with new Foreign Minister Kijuro Shidehara determined to establish more cooperative and conciliatory stances, not only with the Western Powers, but also towards the Chinese Nationalist government. He promised a new policy based on noninterference in Chinese affairs.

In line with this aim of reducing international tensions was the January 1925 signing of the Soviet-Japanese Basic Convention, which normalized Japan’s diplomatic relations with the neighboring Soviet Union for the first time.

The undoubted highlight of the administration, however, came in March 1925 when the National Diet passed legislation establishing the long-sought goal of universal male suffrage in House of Representatives elections. Kato had long been a leading advocate for this democratizing move, and he had finally achieved it.

But as with the previous occasion when a political party had risen to national leadership—the administration of the late Takashi Hara—there were definite limitations to reform goals.

For example, by the 1920s the United States and some other Western countries had already gone well beyond universal male suffrage and had in fact extended the franchise to adult women as well. There was no serious movement to do so in Japan.

On the issue of workers as well, the Kato government lacked resolve to fully legalize labor unions or the right to strike.

In fact, one reason why labor rights were not granted at this time had less to do with conservative bureaucratic resistance, but because political party leaders had strong connections with the big business community, the zaibatsu.

Indeed, Kato himself was independently wealthy through his connection with the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, and he was married to the eldest daughter of its founder, Yataro Iwasaki.

This helps explain why, at the same time as the universal male suffrage legislation was being passed, Kato’s government also agreed to pass the notorious Peace Preservation Law.

The law was in part a response to the covert formation of the Japan Communist Party a few years earlier. Moreover, Japanese elites were generally concerned about the possibility that socialist or other anti-establishment movements might take hold among the poorer classes, who would now have full voting rights.

The Peace Preservation Law gave police widely expanded powers to repress undesirables, including the criminalization, not only actions, but even of thought which contradicted what was vaguely described as the “national essence.” Among the varieties of thought criminalized was criticism of the system of private property.

After about nine or ten months of progressive reforms instituted by the Kato administration, a more conservative political wind began to rise.

This was most notable, not in Kato’s own party, but among its two coalition partners.

In April 1925, the ineffectual Korekiyo Takahashi stepped down as leader of the Constitutional Association of Political Friends and was replaced by Giichi Tanaka, another protege of the late Genro Aritomo Yamagata, and a recently retired senior officer of the Imperial Japanese Army.

Tanaka very quickly set about changing the character of the second-largest political party, inviting new members to join, and pushing it significantly to the right, much more in alignment with Army views.

Tanaka’s efforts were bolstered the following month when Tsuyoshi Inukai dissolved the third-largest party and led most of its lawmakers into Tanaka’s organization.

Combined, these moves destabilized Kato’s administration. In the place of a three-party reform-oriented coalition, there emerged a coalition of two parties, of almost equal size, and with different policy views.

Kato, however, did not give up, but instead made the one move that remained to him on the political chessboard. He reshuffled his Cabinet in August 1925, pushing Tanaka’s party out, and made a policy deal with the one other significant party in the Diet—the True Constitutional Friends Party led by Takejiro Tokonami. This allowed Kato to maintain a de facto majority in the House of Representatives.

The reshuffled Kato Cabinet started off well enough, though at this point it became more cautious about proposing controversial legislation.

What still might have been achieved, however, is unknown. Shortly after the new year dawned, Takaaki Kato caught pneumonia and within a week, on January 28, 1926, he died. His time as prime minister had lasted for 1 year and 232 days.

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