When Fumimaro Konoe returned to the premiership in mid-1940, he launched a bolder package of policy initiatives, including the declaration of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and the creation of a one-party state.
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.
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 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.
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.
From 1892-1896, Hirobumi Ito returned as prime minister and had one of the most successful administrations in Japanese history. He presided over Japan’s first modern war in which it decisively defeated Qing China, overturned the traditional East Asia political order, and created its own colonial empire.
From 1891-1892, the financial specialist among the Meiji Genro, Masayoshi Matsukata, served as prime minister of Japan. After weathering a potential crisis with Russia, he called a general election and unleashed violence against the elected representatives of the people.
Pushing Japan to remilitarize was never, and still is not, a good idea. This is not just because an arms race in Asia is the last thing the region needs. But also because Japan, consistently unable to face up to its own history, is simply not the country to represent the world’s liberal democracies in Asia, especially as a military power.
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.
