Democracy - Minponshugi

Democratic thought in the Taisho period. This term was already in use after the Russo-Japanese War, and was used by Kayahara Kazan, a journalist for the Yorozu Choho newspaper, from 1912 (Meiji 45) as a counter-concept to "aristocracy, bureaucracy, and military rule" in the newspaper, as well as in the magazine he founded the following year (Taisho 2), the Third Reich. Conservative professors at Tokyo Imperial University, Inoue Tetsujiro and Uesugi Shinkichi, also advocated people-centered ideology, with the idea that an emperor should value the welfare of his subjects. It was up-and-coming Tokyo University professor Yoshino Sakuzo who breathed new life into this term and created a trend of thought that marked an era. In his article "Explaining the true meaning of constitutional government and discussing the way to bring it to a successful conclusion" published in the January 1916 issue of Chuokoron, he excluded the Western political concept of "democracy," which means sovereignty resides with the people, as inapplicable to Japan as a monarchy, and named it "people-based ideology," retaining only the meaning that the purpose of politics is the welfare of the people and that policy decisions should follow the will of the people. Continuing to use Chuokoron as his base, he envisioned a constitutional monarchy based on a binding relationship between the people → House of Representatives → Cabinet → Emperor as the political system that should realize people-based ideology, and advocated freedom of speech, assembly, and association, the adoption of universal suffrage and a party cabinet system, and the weakening of absolutist institutions such as the Privy Council, House of Peers, and the military. When applied to social issues, Minponshugi transformed into an argument for the recognition of workers' right to organize and strike, and when applied to foreign policy, it transformed into an argument for the denial of military invasion of the continent, opposition to the policy of assimilation of Korea, and the maintenance of international cooperation. Famous commentators who advocated similar theories include Hasegawa Nyozekan, Oyama Ikuo, and Fukuda Tokuzo, and the Emperor Organ Theory of Minobe Tatsukichi and Sasaki Soichi is also related to Minponshugi. Although Minponshugi avoided a direct confrontation with the Emperor System and imperialism, it functioned as an effective and realistic criticism of them. Minponshugi was compatible with the trend of Taisho democracy based on the political awareness of the people after the Russo-Japanese War and the global trend for international cooperation after World War I, and was welcomed by intellectuals and workers and took journalism by storm. The student movement and the movement for universal suffrage after the rice riots were launched under its direct influence, and the movements of workers, farmers, and discriminated Burakumin also developed with the support of this ideology. The enactment of the Universal Suffrage Law in 1925 and the establishment of party politics were the practical results of this ideology. Around the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake, socialism, which was given the conditions for development by democracy, rapidly advanced, and as Oyama Ikuo and others moved to that camp, the ideology gradually lost its influence, disappearing amid the shift to fascism after the Manchurian Incident.

[Matsuo Takatsugu]

"The Trend of Democracy" by Takatsugu Matsuo (included in "National History 21", 1970, Bun'eido)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

大正期のデモクラシー思想。この語は日露戦後にすでに使用されており、とくに『萬朝報(よろずちょうほう)』記者の茅原華山(かやはらかざん)が1912年（明治45）より「貴族主義・官僚主義・軍人政治」の対立概念として同紙上、および翌13年（大正2）自ら創刊した雑誌『第三帝国』で使用した。東京帝国大学の保守的教授井上哲次郎や上杉慎吉(うえすぎしんきち)も、帝王は臣民の福利を重んずべしとの趣旨で、民本主義を唱えている。この語に新しい生命力を吹き込み、一時代を画する思潮をつくりだしたのは、新進の東大教授吉野作造(さくぞう)であった。彼は『中央公論』1916年1月号に発表した「憲政の本義を説いて其(その)有終の美を済(な)すの途(みち)を論ず」において、欧米の政治概念「デモクラシー」（の意味内容）から、主権在民を意味する「民主主義」は君主国たる日本には適用できぬとして排除し、政治の目的は民衆の利福にあり、政策の決定は民衆の意向に従うべしとの意味だけ残して、「民本主義」と名づけた。彼は引き続き『中央公論』を本拠として、民本主義を実現すべき政治体制として、民衆→衆議院→内閣→天皇の拘束関係を基本とする立憲君主制を構想し、言論・集会・結社の自由、普通選挙制・政党内閣制の採用と、枢密院・貴族院・軍部など絶対主義的機構の弱化を主張した。民本主義は社会問題に適用されるとき、労働者の団結権やストライキ権を認めよの主張に、また対外政策に適用されるとき、武断的大陸侵略否定、朝鮮同化政策反対、国際協調維持の主張に転化した。ほぼ同様な説を唱えた著名な論客として、長谷川如是閑(はせがわにょぜかん)、大山郁夫(いくお)、福田徳三(とくぞう)らがあり、美濃部達吉(みのべたつきち)、佐々木惣一(そういち)らの天皇機関説も民本主義と姉妹関係にある。民本主義は天皇制と帝国主義との直接の対決は回避したが、それらに対する有効な現実的批判として機能した。民本主義は日露戦後の民衆の政治的自覚に基づく大正デモクラシーの風潮と、第一次世界大戦後の世界的な国際協調気運に適合し、知識人・労働者層に歓迎され、ジャーナリズムを風靡(ふうび)した。米騒動後の学生運動と普選運動はその直接的影響のもとに出発し、労働者・農民・被差別部落民の諸運動もこの思想の援護によって発展した。1925年の普通選挙法制定と、政党政治の確立はその現実の成果である。関東大震災前後から、民本主義によって発展の条件を与えられた社会主義が急速に進出し、大山郁夫らがその陣営に移る状況のなかで、しだいに影響力を失い、満州事変以後のファシズム化のなかに姿を消した。

［松尾尊兌］

『松尾尊兌著『民本主義の潮流』（『国民の歴史21』所収・1970・文英堂）』

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