ABSTRACT
What exactly do we mean when we speak of the eclipse of the political parties in Japan during the 1930s? Does the phrase refer solely to their loss of ability, signified by the ending of party cabinets in 1931-2, to aspire to control of the central government? Or does it also imply a general decline in party activity? One reason for looking at elections in a particular prefecture is to find out whether there was an eclipse of the parties in this broader sense. Were the established parties so discredited and demoralised, in fact, that they could not thereafter have presented a challenge to military-bureaucratic control? Alternatively, is there any evidence which might support the theory that the parties lost their central role because the agrarian crisis split the party leaderships and their zaibatsu backers on the one hand from the prefectural branches, dominated by big landlords and local businessmen, on the other? These are but two of the important questions about pre-war Japan which cannot be answered from Tokyo alone. While this paper represents no more than an initial approach to them, it seems worthwhile to take the opportunity to draw attention to the need for greater exploration of the local dimension in modern Japanese history, especially in view of the vigour and enthusiasm of Japanese local historians. 1
