Discuss the reasons for Japan’s failure to maintain a successful democratic system of parliamentary government up to 1931.

The question requires that candidates offer a considered and balanced review of the reasons for Japan’s failure to maintain a successful democratic system up to 1931. Candidates may refer to the problems facing Prime Minister Hara including inflation, the influx of foreign ideas and an emerging labour movement. Hara, who was assassinated in 1921, was followed by a succession of non-party prime ministers and coalition cabinets. The public grew disillusioned with the growing national debt and the new election laws, which retained the old minimum tax qualifications for voters. Fear of a broader electorate, left-wing power and the growing social change due to the influx of western popular culture led to the passage of the Peace Preservation Law in 1925 which forbade any change in the political structure or the abolition of private property. By 1931, constitutional government was usurped by aggressive, militarist expansionist leaders. The rise of the zaibatsu whose influence and size allowed control over significant parts of the Japanese economy may also be discussed.