Inukai cabinet

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Inukai cabinet ( Japanese 犬 養 内閣 , Inukai naikaku ) ruled the Japanese Empire under Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi from December 13, 1931 to May 26, 1932.

After the failure of the Minseitō cabinet of Hamaguchi Osachi and Wakatsuki Reijirō , the last Genrō Saionji Kimmochi with Inukai, who had led the (Rikken) Seiyūkai since 1929 , once again nominated a party politician as his successor. The Shōwa- Tennō ( Hirohito ) appointed Inukai on December 13, 1931.

Immediately after taking office, Inukai and the experienced finance minister Takahashi Korekiyo initiated steps to remove the yen from the gold standard in order to combat the effects of the global economic crisis, which were exacerbated by the gold bond and the Minseito austerity policy. The new cabinet also tried to find a solution to the crisis on the mainland: With Lieutenant General Araki Sadao as Minister of the Army , an ultra-nationalist was a member of the cabinet; Inukai accepted the facts created in Manchuria , but tried, like his predecessors, to have a moderating effect on the military and to prevent an expansion of the war by negotiating a bilateral solution with Chiang Kai-Shek's government - in vain: in early 1932 the fighting broadened temporarily out of Shanghai .

Inukai had the Shūgiin , the lower house of the Reichstag , dissolved after taking office . He ruled with a pure seiyūkai cabinet, and the Minseitō had a clear majority there since the last election. On February 20, the Shūgiin election took place in 1932 , in which the Seiyūkai won 301 of the 466 seats. Inoue Junnosuke (Minseitō), Takahashi's predecessor as finance minister , was murdered during the election campaign . A few weeks later, Dan Takuma , the head of the Mitsui-Zaibatsu ( 三井 財閥 ; loosely connected as the Mitsui Group after the break-up without corporate integration ) was murdered . Both attacks were carried out by the group later known as Ketsumeidan ( 血盟 団 , roughly “blood oath group”): their list of planned victims included large industrialists and liberal politicians, including Inukai and Wakatsuki.

In the "5/15 incident" , the attempted coup by officers of the Imperial Navy on May 15, Inukai was murdered in the prime minister's residence ( kōtei ). Finance Minister Takahashi took over the office. Inukai's successor as Seiyūkai chairman was Suzuki Kisaburō . Saionji Kimmochi had a long-cherished hostility with Suzuki, on the other hand he could not transfer the government back to the failed Minseitō, which had just lost the general election. With Admiral Vice Count Saitō Makoto , he decided to work in a military that was as far removed from party politicians as it was from radical officers. The Tennō followed the recommendation: On May 26, Saitō was appointed Prime Minister. The Saitō cabinet was able to stabilize the domestic political situation somewhat, but his accession finally ended the phase of civil party government, the so-called " Taishō democracy ".

Minister of State

Inukai Cabinet - December 13, 1931 to May 26, 1932.
Office Surname Chamber (constituency / method) Parliamentary group / party
prime minister Inukai Tsuyoshi † May 15, 1932 Shūgiin ( Okayama 2) Seiyūkai
Foreign minister Inukai Tsuyoshi Shūgiin (Okayama 2) Seiyūkai
Yoshizawa Kenkichi from January 14, 1932 Kizokuin (appointment)
Interior minister Nakahashi Tokugorō Shūgiin ( Ishikawa 1) Seiyūkai
Inukai Tsuyoshi from March 16, 1932 Shūgiin (Okayama 2) Seiyūkai
Suzuki Kisaburō from March 25, 1932 Kizokuin ? / Seiyūkai
Finance minister Vice Count Takahashi Korekiyo
Army Minister Lieutenant General Araki Sadao - -
Naval Minister Admiral Baron Ōsumi Mineo - -
Minister of Justice Suzuki Kisaburō Kizokuin ? / Seiyūkai
Kawamura Takeji from March 25, 1932 Kizokuin (appointment)
Minister of Education Hatoyama Ichirō Shūgiin ( Tokyo 2) Seiyūkai
Minister for Agriculture and Forests Yamamoto Teijirō Shūgiin ( Niigata 1) Seiyūkai
Minister for Industry and Trade Maeda Yonezō Shūgiin (Tokyo 6) Seiyūkai
Communications minister Mitsuchi Chūzō Shūgiin ( Kagawa 2) Seiyūkai
Railway Minister Tokonami Takejirō Shūgiin ( Kagoshima 1) Seiyūkai
Colonial minister Hata Toyosuke Shūgiin ( Saitama 1) Seiyūkai

Other positions

Office Surname Chamber (constituency / method) fraction
Head of the Cabinet Secretariat Mori Kaku Shūgiin ( Tochigi 1) Seiyūkai
Head of the Legislative Office Shimada Toshio Shūgiin ( Shimane 2) Seiyūkai

Web links

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