ABSTRACT
IMMEDIATELY after the signing of the Versailles Treaty the restlessness which pervaded the whole world manifested itself in industrial strikes, and Japan had rather more than her share. In Japan, however, they were largely prosperity strikes, though the workers were constantly irritated by prices rising even faster than wages. In June the price of rice was higher than ever. Viscount Takahashi, the Minister of Finance, considered grandiose plans for a Government Rice Monopoly, but Mr. Yamamoto, the Minister for Agriculture and Commerce, favoured a laissezfaire policy. After the signing at Versailles public processions and entertainments were organised, picturesque affairs in which the hetairai figured largely, but these were hardly over when the streets were full of other processions of a less jocund character. There was such an epidemic of demonstrations as Japan had never known.
