Politics and economy in Japan (1912–2020)

Japan boomed by supplying the Allies and expanding into Asian markets abandoned by European exporters, turning Japan from a debtor into a creditor nation by 1918.

Secret list of demands Japan presented to China in January 1915, seeking control over Shandong, Manchuria, key industries, and political influence; China resisted the harshest Group 5.

A seat among the 'Big Five' powers, confirmed rights in Shandong, Pacific island mandates, and a permanent seat on the League of Nations Council.

It won majority support at the Paris conference but chair Woodrow Wilson ruled it needed unanimity, so it failed — seen by many Japanese as proof of continued Western condescension.

Period (1912–26) of Japan's fullest pre-war experiment in party-led, more representative government, named after Emperor Taishō.

Became Japan's first commoner and first party-based prime minister in 1918, marking the start of party cabinets.

Gave the vote to all men aged 25+ regardless of tax paid, expanding the electorate roughly fourfold from about 3 million to 12.5 million; women remained excluded.

Banned any group seeking to change the imperial political system (kokutai) or abolish private property; passed the same year as universal male suffrage.

It killed 100,000+ people, triggered a massacre of Korean (and some Chinese/leftist) residents amid false rumours, and left banks holding bad debt that weakened the economy before 1929.

Japan's economy depended heavily on silk exports to the US; when American demand collapsed, rural families lost their main cash income, causing severe rural crisis.

Suffrage widened WHO could vote (more participation); the Peace Preservation Law narrowed WHAT could be argued for politically (less freedom) — passed in the same year.

It discredited party-cabinet politicians, seen as tied to big business zaibatsu, and strengthened arguments from the military and ultranationalists for stronger, less democratic leadership.

A staged explosion on a Japanese-controlled railway near Mukden, blamed on Chinese saboteurs, used by the Kwantung Army as a pretext to invade Manchuria.

The puppet state Japan created in Manchuria in 1932, nominally ruled by the last Qing emperor Puyi but actually controlled by Japanese officials.

It effectively ended party-led civilian cabinets in Japan — no elected-party politician served as prime minister again until after 1945.

About 1,400 radical young army officers seized central Tokyo and killed several ministers, trying to force military rule; Emperor Hirohito ordered it crushed, but it further intimidated civilian politicians.

Japan's 1940 plan presenting itself as liberating Asia from Western colonial rule, while in practice extracting labour and resources from occupied territories for Japan's benefit.

To cripple the US Pacific Fleet in a surprise strike, buy time to seize resource-rich Southeast Asia, and force a negotiated peace before US industry could out-produce Japan.

The US Navy sank four Japanese aircraft carriers and killed many experienced pilots, a loss Japan's industry and training system could never replace.

US B-29 incendiary raids destroyed much of the city and killed around 100,000 people, one of the deadliest single bombing raids of the war.

The USA dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing well over 100,000 people combined, with many more dying later from burns and radiation.

The USSR declared war and invaded Japanese-held Manchuria on 8 August 1945, destroying Japan's hope of a Soviet-mediated peace settlement.

Rhetoric: Japan freeing Asia from Western colonialism for shared prosperity. Reality: forced labour, requisitioned resources, and suppressed nationalism under Japanese military control.

Whether the atomic bombs alone were decisive, or whether Soviet entry into Manchuria mattered equally by removing Japan's hope of a mediated peace — most balanced answers argue both factors combined.

Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers — the US-led authority that occupied and governed Japan 1945–52, led by General Douglas MacArthur.

Japan renounces war as a sovereign right and agrees never to maintain armed forces with war potential — the 'peace clause'.

Absentee landlords were forced to sell farmland, which was resold cheaply to tenant farmers — turning millions of tenants into small landowners and reducing rural unrest.

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry — it directed cheap credit, loans, and import protection toward strategic export industries like steel, cars, and electronics.

Networks of allied companies grouped around a central bank, giving firms stable long-term financing; they replaced the pre-war zaibatsu conglomerates.

US 'special procurement' contracts for the war gave Japanese industry a sudden, large injection of capital and demand right when it needed it most.

Some argue MITI's planning was the key cause of growth; others argue high savings, skilled labour, and export demand would have driven growth regardless, and MITI sometimes misjudged industries (e.g. discouraging Sony's transistor radios).

The Bank of Japan raised interest rates to cool speculative property and stock prices, causing the bubble to burst and prices to collapse.

The prolonged period of economic stagnation, deflation, and near-zero growth in Japan from the 1990s into the 2000s–2010s, following the bubble's collapse.

Banks kept failing firms alive with fresh loans rather than writing off bad debts, trapping capital and workers in unproductive businesses instead of letting them move to growing ones.

An ageing and shrinking population — falling birth rates and low immigration meant fewer workers, more retirees, and rising pension/healthcare costs.

For the economic miracle: was it mainly MITI's planning or external circumstances (Korean War, Article 9 savings)? For the Lost Decades: was it mainly policy failure (slow bank reform) or deeper structural/demographic forces (ageing population, rigid keiretsu system)?