Hamaguchi Osachi

Osachi Hamaguchi

Hamaguchi Osachi ( Japanese 濱 口 雄 幸 , or in respectful reading Hamaguchi Yūkō ; * May 1, 1870 in Kōchi , Tosa Province (today: Kōchi Prefecture ), Japan ; † August 26, 1931 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese politician and 27. Prime Minister of Japan .

Life

Hamaguchi first joined the Ministry of Finance in 1895 , where his ability was quickly noticed. In the third cabinet of Katsura Taro he was State Secretary ( jikan ) for communications between December 1912 and February 1913 and then in the government of Ōkuma Shigenobu from April 1914 to October 1916 State Secretary for Finance.

In 1915 he was elected in the constituency of Kōchi-Stadt as a candidate for Rikken Dōshikai as a member of the Shūgiin , the lower house. He soon took leading positions within the Kenseikai . From June 1924 to June 1925 he was Minister of Finance and then Minister of the Interior for some time . In 1927 he became the founding chairman of the Rikken Minseitō . On July 2, 1929, he finally became Prime Minister himself, succeeding Tanaka Giichi .

Osachi's grave in Aoyama Cemetery in Tokyo

As prime minister, he carried out a currency reform in early 1930 in which he pegged the yen back to the gold standard . The Shūgiin election in February 1930 won his party in one of the cleanest election campaigns in Japanese history and outstripped the long-dominated Rikken Seiyūkai in seats. The Tennō left him in office as Prime Minister. However, the global economic crisis also left its mark on Japan, so that his policy quickly became unpopular. To combat growing inflation , he promoted the mechanization and rationalization of industry . However, the aftermath of the Great Depression led to more deflation in the economy than he had intended and his actions led to great social unrest. In addition, his intention to reduce public sector salaries met with strong opposition. Ultimately, his attempts to reduce the military leadership in favor of a civilian leadership led to resistance from the political right ( Uyoku ). Ultimately, his acceptance of the provisions of the London Fleet Conference in 1930 , which provided for a reduction or fixing of the maximum limit of the fleet, turned into a special rejection.

On November 14, 1930, a juvenile committed right-wing in the station Tokyo one assassination attempt on him, that he survived initially. In March 1931 , the military under Lieutenant Colonel Hashimoto Kingorō and Captain Chō Isamu from the secret organization Sakurakai (Cherry Blossom Society) tried unsuccessfully to depose him by a coup .

In February 1931, Hamaguchi supported a bill for women's suffrage at the local level after further plans failed due to opposition from leading politicians from both major parties. The law passed the Shūgiin, but failed in the Kizokuin , the mansion. In April 1931, however, his health relapsed, which forced him to resign from the post of Prime Minister on April 14, 1931. His successor as party chairman of the Minseitō and as Prime Minister was Wakatsuki Reijirō .

Web links

• www.rulers.org
• Newspaper article about Hamaguchi Osachi in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Japanese yūsokuyomi ( 有 職 読 み ). The Japanese name reading was replaced by a Sino-Japanese on reading .
2. ↑ JANJAN, The Senkyo: Constituency result Kōchi-Stadt 1915  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Hamaguchi is the family name, Osachi the first name.