ABSTRACT
The termination of party government after the assassination of Prime Minister Inukai by a group of civilian nationalists led by a mixed group of young military officers on May 15th, 1932, was unsurprising. Perhaps more surprising was that only six months earlier Saionji had felt compelled to turn to the Seiyukai to form a government. The domestic and international considerations which had brought the parties to power had all but disappeared by the end of the Wakatsuki Cabinet in December 1931. The Minseito-backed Shidehara China policy had provoked the Kwantung Army into independent action. The domestic repercussions had been an increased politicisation of the army and a proliferation of nationalist groups willing to engage in direct action against the Government. With the signing of the London Naval Treaty in 1930, the Privy Council had emerged from a period of dormancy and had begun to challenge party control of Government. Furthermore, the Genro’s honeymoon with the Seiyukai was over. The relationship had come under severe strain during Tanaka Giichi’s tenure as prime minister. The burgeoning ties of the Seiyukai leadership with the military, their support of a positive China policy and their opposition to the London Naval Treaty, had brought it almost to breaking point.
