ABSTRACT
In May 1925 universal male suffrage was put in place, in August a single-party Cabinet of the Kenseikai was organised and the Seiy;kai, with the Army General Tanaka Giichi as its new President, left the government. Over the eight months between the Manchurian Incident of September 1931 and the May 15th Incident of 1932, Japan was in a vortex of crisis. It was confronted with three perplexing issues: an external crisis, a military coup d';tat, and an economic crisis. Over the ten years and more of politics between the end of the First World War and the May 15th Incident of 1932, it was the first half of the 1920s, in which the Seiy;kai and the Kenseikai showed their good points and their shortcomings in both domestic and foreign policy, that contributed to political stability and progress. By contrast the Seiy;kai, even after Hara's death, continued to give total support to the Washington system.
