Rudder in the Storm: Yoshikazu Tanaka and the Manchurian Question of the Times."

Rudder in the Storm: Yoshikazu Tanaka and the Manchurian Question of the Times."

Yoshikazu Tanaka (1864-1929), the 26th Prime Minister of Japan, was a politician with a military background who was at the center of Japan's political upheaval from 1927 to 1929.

During Yoshikazu Tanaka's term of office, many important events took place in Japan and abroad. The Showa Financial Depression (1927) saw major financial institutions, such as the Fifteen Banks and the Bank of Taiwan, fall into financial crisis, resulting in chain-reaction bankruptcies. In response to this turmoil, the Tanaka Cabinet took financial bailout measures, but it is said that the gaffes of then Minister of Finance Kataoka Naonen were the cause of the Depression.

In its China policy, the Tanaka administration aimed to expand Japan's interests in Manchuria under the slogan of "aggressive diplomacy. Tanaka attempted to negotiate with Chinese warlord leader Zhang Zuolin, but the 1928 Zhang Zuolin Incident cast a dark shadow over his policy. The incident was suspected of being the direct action of the Kwantung Army and drew international condemnation. Jang's son, Jang Xue-liang, subsequently came to power in Manchuria, further straining relations with Japan.

At the same time, international isolation deepened. The Tanaka Cabinet's China policy deepened the confrontation with the United States, Britain, and other powers, and weakened Japan's position in the League of Nations. In particular, the failure of diplomacy resulted in a significant decline in Japan's reputation both at home and abroad.

Domestically, the economic crisis in rural areas was becoming more serious. Falling rice prices and problems with the landownership system affected rural communities, and anti-government sentiment grew among farmers. The Tanaka Cabinet adopted policies aimed at stabilizing the rural economy, but these policies failed to achieve a drastic solution.

Yoshikazu Tanaka, who had a military background, had strong ties to the Kwantung Army and the War Ministry, and gave priority to the military perspective in policy making. This led to the influence of military elements in many of his foreign and domestic policy decisions.

Yoshikazu Tanaka's hard-line foreign policy and military bias became the springboard for the later Manchurian Incident and the militarization of Japan. Although his cabinet was short-lived, lasting less than two years, it had a major impact on Japan in the early Showa period.