Japan in 1922: Rising Power, Internal Strains

A century ago, Japan was a major industrial and military power in East Asia, fresh from victories over China (1895) and Russia (1905), and a WWI ally of the Entente.

Taishō Era (1912–1926) Context

• Economy: Booming—shipbuilding, textiles, zaibatsu conglomerates.
• Empire: Korea annexed (1910); gained German Pacific islands (Versailles); influence in Manchuria/Mongolia.
• Politics: “Taishō Democracy”—party cabinets, expanded suffrage (1925), labor/feminist movements.
• Challenges: Rice riots (1918), rising militarism, communist party founded (1922), Great Kanto Earthquake (1923).

Turning Point

By the 1930s, militarists hijacked policy: Manchuria invasion (1931), full-scale China war (1937), Pearl Harbor (1941), defeat (1945). The 1922 moment was the last peak of liberal internationalism before the dark decade.