quietude. The external relations of Japan, too, contributed their quota to the stirring of the popular imagination and excitement: Korea had been annexed; China had started a revolution; and California was adopting the policy of racial discrimination to- wards Japanese immigrants. But, what most deeply affected the heart of the Japanese people was the demise of the Emperor Meiji in July 1912. The whole nation mourned and lamented the loss of the great leader under whose rule modern Japan was created. The dramatic suicide, on the occasion of the Imperial funeral, of Gen. Nogi, the hero of Port Arthur and Mukden, added a climax to the national bewilderment. And the Era of Taisho was but two years old at the advent of the World War.
After several months of commercial depression the trade and industry of Japan began to prosper, and had attained a most remarkable development by the time of the Armistice. This progress, however, was not without its attendant evils: war prof- iteers the narikin or queened pawns sprang up like mush- rooms overnight; into the maw of busy factories was poured a tremendous amount of labour; the cost of living advanced by leaps and bounds; but wages and salaries did not keep pace with the soaring prices. An age of Western capitalism was in sight. Public sentiment in Japan was, moreover, heartened by the Allied assertions that the war was a democratic crusade against the rule of despotism. The word " democracy " was on the lips of the man in the street. Strikes, which had long been stifled by Article 17 of the Peace Police Regulations issued in 1900, practi- cally prohibiting the establishment of trade unions, began, de- spite all restraining circumstances, to be more and more fre- quently organized. Encouraged by the results achieved in 1916, the following year saw no less than 417 strikes involving 66,000 wage-earners, and in 1918 the number increased to 497. Most of these resulted in favour of the workers, earnings being ulti- mately nearly trebled in some trades and a marked improvement being also effected in the hygienic conditions of the workpeople. A significant incident, which was the spark to ignite the train of strikes in 1918, was the " rice riot " started in Toyama, a small town on the coast of the Sea of Japan, by village fisherwomen whose thread of patience had snapped at the never-ending rise in the price of that commodity. The whole nation was involved in the general conflagration which followed. There occurred, in rapid succession, strikes in Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka, Tokyo and else- where, and riot and destruction took place to such an extent that the Government, at last, found it necessary to resort to the use of troops in the pacification of the angry mobs.
Even such methods as sabotage and " ca'canny " strikes were introduced. As a consequence, no less than 200 new labour or- ganizations were formed, of which the Yuai Kai and a dozen others are of importance. The Government, in an eager attempt to meet the extraordinary developments of the situation, encour- aged the establishment of the Roshi Kyocho Kai, or the Labour and Capital Harmonizing Association, which came into being in 1919 with Prince I. Tokugawa as president and Visct. Shibu- sawa as one of the vice-presidents. Moreover, Japan participated in the International Labour Conference; the revision of the Factory Law which was enacted in 1911 and came into force in 1916, was taken in hand. Meantime, popular agitation against the bureaucratic method of administration arose on all hands, and the question of universal suffrage was vociferously discussed. In the spring of 1918 a reform bill was passed, and the number of electors was doubled.
With the restoration of peace, however, a slump set in, profits fell and the demand for labour abated. The unemployment question also arose to a certain extent, but not in an entirely threatening aspect. Although the high-water mark of labour agitation had probably been reached by 1921, the causes for the phenomenon remained to offer food for the deepest reflection on the part of the thinkers and statesmen of Japan. The national characteristics of Japan, which are the heritage of her history the peculiar harmony and self-restraint pervading all classes of the people, the spirit of individual sacrifice and self-abnegation, in the interests of the whole were indeed strong relieving factors in all the social unrest she had experienced. How far this men-
tality was the legacy of feudalism and destined to disappear in time, and how far it was born of the unique social conditions of the Yamato race, which has remained homogeneous and unmo- lested on the Far Eastern islands for 30 long centuries without a single case of successful external invasion and subjugation, is a question which perhaps the future alone can definitely answer. Be that as it may, it was the eager hope of young Japan in 1921 that she might struggle to work out her own solutions of the perplexing problem of capital and labour.
Political Developments. Owing to the necessity of establish- ing a strong central authority imposed upon Japan for self- defence owing to the apparently aggressive policies in the Orient of the Western Powers towards the end of the igth century and probably from an abundance of conservative caution, as the country had just emerged from ages of feudalism, the makers of modern Japan often turned to German legislation in seeking for models of the constitution and other laws. But an important factor that should not be lost sight of by students of Japanese politics is that English has long been by far the most extensively studied foreign language among the people. Whilst the static institutions remain more or less Teutonic in form, dynamic in- spiration has continuously been drawn from English-speaking sources. That explains why the Japanese body politic under- stands democracy along the lines of its common acceptation in the British Empire and the United States; why the press and students of politics often advocate the development of a polity somewhat like the British parliamentary system. The political history of Japan in 1910-21 was the last phase of the struggle between the wise council for the national security with which the Genro, the Elder Statesmen, are popularly identified, and the progressive outcry for the emancipation of the people's will. As external dangers diminish, vox populi speaks more effectively.
After the longest tenure of office in the constitutional history of Japan, four and a half years, Premier Katsura resigned in Aug. 1911, " with a view to renovating the spirit of the people." With the collaboration of Marquis Komara, Foreign Minister, Marquis Katsura had accomplished with great merit various financial reforms, the annexation of Korea and the revision of commercial treaties with the Western Powers. Katsura was succeeded by Marquis Saionzi, who had been leading the Seiyukai party after the retirement of Prince Ito (see 15.272).
It was during the premiership of Marquis Saionzi that a tremendous moral shock was experienced by the whole nation on account of the death on July 30 1912 of the Emperor Mutsu- hito, the centre of reverence and affection of the nation. Meiji Tenno, as he was posthumously styled after the name of the era of his 45 years' reign, which stands out with glorious prominence in the annals of the empire, was succeeded by his son, Yoshihito Shinno, who ascended the throne at the age of thirty-three.
The downfall of the Saionzi Cabinet was due to a very pecuh'ar circumstance, which is accounted for only by the paramountcy of the instinct of national self-defence. Before the year 191 2 had closed, the establishment of two army divisions in Korea (Cho- sen) had been tenaciously persisted in by Lt.-Gen. Uyehara, Minister of War. But his colleagues on the Cabinet, as well as the press, counselled retrenchment and economy. Uyehara re- signed; and the premier sought for his successor. But no soldier would accept the post without a commitment by Saionzi as to the two-division increase; and by law a Minister of War must hold the rank of a general or lieutenant-general in the active service. The premier was constrained to request the Emperor to relieve him from his office. There followed a ministerial deadlock, until Katsura, actuated by chivalrous motives, descended upon the confused arena. He had been created a prince, and had made up his mind to offer the young Emperor the loyal but non-politi- cal services of the rest of his life in the capacity of Grand Cham- berlain and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. The young and care-free generation of Japan had come to assert themselves, and the unconstitutional tendency of the Genre's activities had been made the object of popular criticism. The wide-spread suspicion that he harboured the intention of attempting to direct the affairs of state unconstitutionally " from behind the sleeves of
