Empire of Japan

===="Taishō Democracy"====
[[File:Itagaki Taisuke.jpg|thumb|upright|Count [[Itagaki Taisuke]] is credited as being the first Japanese party leader and an important force for liberalism in Meiji Japan.]]

The two-party political system that had been developing in Japan since the turn of the century came of age after World War&nbsp;I, giving rise to the nickname for the period, "[[Taishō Democracy]]". The public grew disillusioned with the growing national debt and the new election laws, which retained the old minimum tax qualifications for voters. Calls were raised for universal suffrage and the dismantling of the old political party network. Students, university professors, and journalists, bolstered by labor unions and inspired by a variety of democratic, socialist, communist, anarchist, and other thoughts, mounted large but orderly public demonstrations in favor of universal male suffrage in 1919 and 1920.

On 1 September 1923, at a magnitude of 7.9, an [[Great Kantō Earthquake|earthquake struck Kantō Plain]]. The death toll was estimated to have exceeded to 140,000 lives lost. On the same day, the Imperial Japanese Army and its nationalists committed a [[Kantō Massacre|massacre]] of Korean residents.

The election of [[Katō Takaaki|Katō Komei]] as Prime Minister of Japan continued democratic reforms that had been advocated by influential individuals on the left. This culminated in the passage of universal male suffrage in March 1925. This bill gave all male subjects over the age of 25 the right to vote, provided they had lived in their electoral districts for at least one year and were not homeless. The electorate thereby increased from 3.3&nbsp;million to 12.5&nbsp;million.<ref>Hane, Mikiso, ''Modern Japan: A Historical Survey'' (Oxford: Westview Press, 1992) 234.</ref>

In the political milieu of the day, there was a proliferation of new parties, including socialist and communist parties. Fear of a broader electorate, left-wing power, and the growing social change led to the passage of the [[Peace Preservation Law]] in 1925, which forbade any change in the political structure or the abolition of private property.

In 1932, Park Chun-kum was elected to the House of Representatives in the [[Japanese general election, 1932|Japanese general election]] as the first person elected from a colonial background.{{clarify|date=July 2013}}<ref name="shugiin150">{{cite web |date=November 16, 2000 |title=第150回国会 政治倫理の確立及び公職選挙法改正に関する特別委員会 第12号 平成12年11月16日（木曜日） |url=http://www.shugiin.go.jp/itdb_kaigiroku.nsf/html/kaigiroku/007115020001116012.htm?OpenDocument |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928200616/http://www.shugiin.go.jp/itdb_kaigiroku.nsf/html/kaigiroku/007115020001116012.htm?OpenDocument |archive-date=September 28, 2011 |access-date=October 10, 2009 |publisher=House of Representatives of Japan}}</ref> In 1935, democracy was introduced in Taiwan and in response to Taiwanese public opinion, local assemblies were established.<ref name="nittaikyo">{{cite web |title=戦間期台湾地方選挙に関する考察 |url=http://www.nittaikyo-ei.join-us.jp/koichi.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411052847/http://www.nittaikyo-ei.join-us.jp/koichi.html |archive-date=April 11, 2008 |access-date=October 10, 2009 |work=古市利雄 |publisher=台湾研究フォーラム 【台湾研究論壇】}}</ref> In 1942, 38 colonial people were elected to local assemblies of the Japanese homeland.<ref name="shugiin150" />

Unstable coalitions and divisiveness in the Diet led the [[Kenseikai]] ({{lang|ja|憲政会}} ''Constitutional Government Association'') and the Seiyū Hontō ({{lang|ja|政友本党}} ''True Seiyūkai'') to merge as the [[Constitutional Democratic Party (Japan)|Rikken Minseitō]] ({{lang|ja|立憲民政党}} ''Constitutional Democratic Party'') in 1927. The [[Rikken Minseitō]] platform was committed to the parliamentary system, democratic politics, and world peace. Thereafter, until 1932, the [[Rikken Seiyūkai|Seiyūkai]] and the Rikken Minseitō alternated in power.

Despite the political realignments and hope for more orderly government, domestic economic crises plagued whichever party held power. Fiscal austerity programs and appeals for public support of such conservative government policies as the Peace Preservation Law—including reminders of the moral obligation to make sacrifices for the emperor and the state—were attempted as solutions.