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Hara Takashi

A Dictionary of Contemporary World History

Hara Takashi (b. 9 Sept. 1856, d. 4 Nov. 1921). Prime Minister of Japan 1918–21 The protégé of Inoue Kaoru, also known as Hara Kei and Hara Satoshi. Hara was to win a position for himself independent of the oligarchs who had ruled Japan since the Meiji Restoration, establishing the power of the party in politics. Hara's early career included time spent as a journalist and as a senior official in the consular service in China and ambassador to Korea. As a leading member of the Seiyûkai, he entered the Diet in 1900 and served in several Cabinets as Minister of Communications and head of the powerful Home Ministry. In 1914, Hara succeeded Saionji Kinmochi as party president and four years later he became the first commoner to hold the premiership. He was an expert at building up the party machine, largely through the funnelling of patronage provided by big business to the grass roots. A combination of strong electoral performances and the brilliant skills Hara displayed as a political schemer allowed Japan's political parties to win power from the bureaucracy and the old political establishment. Hara's policies, as well as his emphasis on domestic economic well-being, brought him into conflict with the entrenched interests in the bureaucracy. He was assassinated by a right-wing fanatic.

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© A Dictionary of Contemporary World History 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004.