Japan's Great Depression ant the Seiyukai Party

Abstract

The aim of the present article is to clarify the policy response of the Seiyukai Party to the effects of the Great Depression on Japan, a phenomenon know as the "Showa Depression", through an investigation of the Party's economic platform during the leadership of Inukai Tsuyoshi centered around Policy Affairs Re- search Council Chairman Yamamoto Jotaro's ideas prioritizing economic measures with such slogans as "national livelihood, the dominant issue in the political process" and "economization of politics". This economic platform, which the Seiyukai advertised as "proactive", was criticized by its political rival throughout the prewar era, the Minseito Party, as a conglomerate of "laissez faire do-nothing" measures. The author argues that in response to such criticism, both the content and meaning of "proactive policy" would change significantly within the Seiyukai during the Inukai era. The Five-Year Industrial Plan proposed by Council Chairman Yamamoto called for overcoming the Depression through government stimulus measures aimed as fiscal expenditure and customs and tariffs, thus setting a clear standard for what the Seiyukai considered "proactive" in response to criticism of "proactive inaction." For the Seiyukai, overcoming the economic downturn and stabilizing the livelihood of the nation meant expanding ideas about the role of government as outlined in ten general policies centered around its highly touted Five-Year Plan. In other words, the Plan was an attempt by the Seiyukai to improve its "proactive policy" for the purpose of 1) rebutting criticism raised by its rival concerning the two issues of economic recovery and livelihood stabilization and 2) raising its national popularity. On another front, although there was a Seiyukai faction that was committed to state monopolization of rice sales as a means of agrarian relief, the stimulus-based Five-Year Plan remained as the Party's policy base up until the Naval officer mutiny and assassination of Inukai on May 15, 1932. It was only after the incident, in the midst of public outcry for agrarian relief measures, that the Seiyukai attempted to incorporate such measures into the policy decision-making process by claiming that they, too, would contribute to economic recovery. In this sense, the May 15th Incident would determine the political process in one more aspect by putting an end to policy-making based on the longterm visions created within political parties in favor of more attention being paid to trends in public opinion.