Published papers

Abstract In August 1898, the sixth general election took place. This election was called by the Waihan cabinet, the first party cabinet in Japan. Preceding the election, in June 1898, the Jiyuto and the Shinpoto united into the Kenseito, and they set up a coalition government. They has over 80% of the seats of the House of Representatives. But because of the minor electorate system, the Kenseito had to arrange their candidates. This paper deals the election from point of view of the candidate-arranging problem in the coalition government. First, it examines the measures at the center of Kenseito. Second, it investigates the conditions in the local branches. Third, it analyzes to the outcome of the arranging of candidates. Finally, this paper shows that this problem led to the general resignation of the Cabinet.

In this paper, by focusing upon three Cabinets-the first Okuma Cabinet (the first party Cabinet in Japan), the second Yamagata Cabinet and the fourth Itoh Cabinet, the author attempts to examine how the relationship between the politico-bureaucracy and the cabinets changed. Though many historians have focused on the same era, they give less attention to this change than is warranted. By discovering a new source material related to the Rinji Seimu Chosakai (Special commission for policy affairs research), the author has paved the way to examining such change. He makes the following three points. The first deals with the Kenseito party and its internal conflict. While the Shinpo faction intended to intervene structurally in the bureaucracy, the Jiyu faction intended to cooperate with the bureaucrats to extend its power. This confliction ultimately led up to the collapse of the Okuma Cabinet. Secondly, the second Yamagata Cabinet managed to get along with the Jiyu faction, compromising with them even about the blueprint for a government. Finally, such change in the relationship between the cabinets and the bureaucracy led to the restructuralizing of the Seiyukai party, which was made up of the the Itoh and Jiyu factions and shifted in the relation to bureaucracy. The Seiyukai party tried to wield its influence upon bureaucrats and tried to implants partisan spirit among them. Later on, this effort led to the participation of bureaucrats in party affairs.