From the late years of Meiji to the Taisho period, Goto was brilliantly active in such fields as colonial policy, transportation policy, foreign policy and National Enlightenment. As a politician as well, he had an unusually unique and splendid political career, joining Katsura's New Party, serving first as the Home Minister under Terauchi's "National Unity" Cabinet and again under the second Yamamoto "National Unity" Cabinet, and joining the movement of the Preliminary Committee on universal Suffrage. Previous studies on Goto have been so mesmerized by this brilliance that they have consequently neglected the fundamental problem of his basic political attitude or his position in the political arena during this period. This article represents an exhaustive reconsideration of his political activity. The conclusions reached herein may be summarized as follows : first, concerning Goto's fundamental political attitude, we find that his basic goal was that, rather than the military and political foreign expansion which Japan had been continuously carrying out since the Meiji Restoration, Japan needed to realize external economic expansion and thus truly. become an accepted member of the inner circle of most powerful nations, and a State relatively independent of the Western powers. Secondly, he had a strong interest in the National People's Organization that would be able to realize this goal. It was most characteristic of him at this time that he tried to mobilize scholars and journalists, regardless of their political persuasion or ideology, and to organize, according to their age or ability, those people (for example, members of youth organizations, physicians, educators, etc.) those who were even more committed to the localities than were the class of so-called "Chiho Meiboka". He also cooperated with men such as Okuma Shigenobu and Tanaka Giichi. But it was not possible to fully organize the nation in the Japan of his day. If we look next at his activities within the political arena, we notice that, first, in order to accomplish his goal, he responded to the power of the political parties and the bureaucracy with great flexibility. In particular, he was on constantly good terms with party politicians of the Seiyukai and the Kenseikai. Further, due to his emphasis on "reform", he had many supporters in both the bureaucracy and in the political parties that served him well as a political asset. However, the expectations of his supporters were varied and he ultimately failed to meet them all. Thirdly, and most importantly, he placed the greatest political importance on cooperation with Inukai Tsuyoshi and Ito Miyoji (the "Triangular Alliance"). Moreover, he fundamentally tried to adiministrate political affairs in tune with them and men of the same generation (including the Head of the Seiyukai, Hara Kei, and the Head of the Kenseikai, Kato Takaaki). However, the Second Constitutional Preservation Movement rendered support of his third position difficult. Finally, in the end, this significancy reduced Goto's political power and fixed his place in history as only a minor politician on the periphery of the Seiyukai.
抄録全体を表示