English-speaking diplomat Kijuro Shidehara served as prime minister in 1945-1946, corresponding with the most progressive phase of a US military occupation which was initially guided by the principles of the New Deal and the American concern that Japan never again pose a military challenge to US hegemony in the Pacific.
From 1901-1906, Taro Katsura served a highly consequential term as prime minister which featured the emergence of a new generation to the top leadership post and a war which established Japan as a Great Power in international affairs.
From 1889-1891, conservative Prime Minister Aritomo Yamagata became prime minister and oversaw Japan’s first parliamentary elections and the first session of the elected Diet, but he soon became tired of battling the elected representatives of the people.
From 1888-1889, Kiyotaka Kuroda served as the second prime minister of Japan. Although he made an energetic effort to oversee the revision of the unequal treaties with the European Powers, he and his foreign minister became caught in the political crossfire.
I wear two hats. My day job is teaching social security and labor law at a university. I also serve as executive president of a labor union. In this installment of the column, I will discuss my recent musings about welfare and the Imperial household.
A basic primer on the issues surrounding the controversial Article Nine of the Japanese Constitution.
The Abe Cabinet itself is now openly endorsing and defending the Imperial Rescript on Education, in spite of the fact that both houses of the Diet denounced the document in June 1948 as a handmaiden to wartime Japanese militarism.
