Osachi Hamaguchi

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Osachi Hamaguchi
Prime Minister of Japan
20th Prime Minister of Japan
In office 2 July 1929 – 14 April 1931
Preceded by	Tanaka Giichi
Succeeded by	Wakatsuki Reijiro

Born	1 April 1870(1870-04-01) Kochi, Kochi Prefecture, Japan
Died	August 26 1931 (aged 61) Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Kenseikai Rikken Minseito
Spouse	Natsuko Hamaguchi
Occupation	Cabinet Minister

Osachi Hamaguchi (濱口雄幸, Hamaguchi Osachi^?, 1 April 1870–26 August 1931) was a Japanese politician and the 27th Prime Minister of Japan from 2 July 1929 to 14 April 1931. He was called the "Lion prime minister"(ライオン宰相) due to his physical features.

1 Early life
2 Political career
3 Prime Minister
4 References
5 External links

Early life

Hamaguchi was born in what is now Kochi city, Kochi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku; his father was an official in the forestry department. He graduated from the Law College of Tokyo Imperial University and began his career as a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Finance. In 1907, he became director of the Monopoly Bureau. He became Vice Communications Minister in 1912 and Vice Finance Minister in 1914.

Political career

Hamaguchi was elected to the lower house in the Japanese Diet in 1915, as a member of the Kenseikai political party. He later served as Finance Minister under the 1st and 2nd administrations of Kato Takaaki (1924, 1925) and as Home Minister under the cabinet of Wakatsuki Reijiro (1926). In 1927, Hamaguchi became the chairman of the new Rikken Minseito political party formed by the merger of the Kenseikai and the Seiyu Honto.

Prime Minister

After the collapse of the administration of Tanaka Giichi in 1929, Hamaguchi became Prime Minister of Japan and formed a cabinet based largely on Minseito party members. With a strong sense of his own rectitude and a tough, stubborn temperament, Hamaguchi inspired trust. Initial public confidence bolstered Hamaguchi's government and allowed him to successfully challenge the ascendant military radicals within Japan. However, his settlement of the London Naval Conference treaty of 1930, in which he tried to set the ratio of battle ships for the US, Britain, and Japan at 10:10:7 but was forced to agree to a 10:10:6 ratio, led many right-wing politicians and conservatives to think that Hamaguchi had sold out on Japanese national security. This released a surge of Japanese nationalism and resulted in the end of Shidehara/Hamaguchi diplomacy (which supported peaceful economic expansion). In his term of office, Hamaguchi attempted to strengthen the Japanese economy through fiscal austerity measures. Hamaguchi's fiscal policy, however, proved disastrous. The Hamaguchi government put Japanese Yen on the gold standard to help stimulate exports, a measure that greatly worsened the impact of the worldwide Great Depression of 1929 on the already feeble economy. This failure of Hamaguchi’s economic played into the hands of right-wing elements, already enraged by the government's conciliatory foreign policies and efforts to reduce military spending. Hamaguchi fell victim to an assassination attempt on 14 November 1930 when he was shot in Tokyo Station by Tomeo Sagoya, a member of the Aikoku-sha ultranationalist secret society. (Nine years earlier another Prime Minister, Hara Takashi, had been assassinated near the same place.) The wounds kept Hamaguchi hospitalized for several months, but he struggled through physical weakness to win the February 1931 election. He returned to his post in March of 1931 but resigned a month later to be replaced by Reijiro Wakatsuki.

References

Bix, Herbert B. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. Harper Perennial (2001). ISBN 0-06-093130-2
Buruma, Ian. Inventing Japan: 1853-1964. Modern Library. Reprint edition (2004) ISBN 0-8129-7286-4
Jansen, Marius B. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan . Belknap Press; New Ed edition (2002). ISBN 006019314X