Reijiro Wakatsuki - Reijiro Wakatsuki

A bureaucrat and politician during the Taisho and Showa periods. His pen name was Katsudo. He was born on February 5, 1866, as the second son of Matsue feudal lord Okumura Senzaburo, and was adopted by his uncle Wakatsuki Kei. In 1892 (Meiji 25), he graduated from the Buddhist Law Department of Tokyo Imperial University and joined the Ministry of Finance. He served as the tax collector for Ehime Prefecture, head of the Internal Tax Division of the Tax Bureau of the Ministry of Finance, and director of the Tax Bureau, before becoming Vice Minister of Finance in the first Saionji Kinmochi cabinet in 1906 (Meiji 39), and then in the second Katsura Taro cabinet in 1908. In 1911, he resigned from his position as Vice Minister of Finance and became an Imperially appointed member of the House of Peers. He also served as Minister of Finance in the third Katsura cabinet and the second Okuma Shigenobu cabinet. During this time, he participated in the founding of the Rikken Doshikai and Kenseikai. In 1924 (Taisho 13), he became Minister of the Interior in the Three Party Constitutionalists Cabinet, and enacted the Universal Suffrage Law and the Peace Preservation Law. In January 1926, he succeeded Prime Minister Kato Takaaki as President of the Constitutional Party and formed a cabinet (the First Wakatsuki Cabinet) after the death of Prime Minister Kato Takaaki from illness, but resigned in 1927 (Showa 2) when the Privy Council rejected an emergency imperial ordinance proposal to rescue the Bank of Taiwan. In 1930, under the Hamaguchi Osachi Cabinet, he served as the Chief Plenipotentiary at the London Naval Conference, and after much difficulty, the treaty was concluded. In April 1931, as Hamaguchi's condition worsened, he became President of the Rikken Minseito Party in his place, and formed the Second Wakatsuki Cabinet, which continued the policies of the Hamaguchi Cabinet. However, with the outbreak of the Manchurian Incident, the Shidehara diplomacy and austerity budget, which were the basis of his policies, collapsed for good, and he was forced to resign en masse due to Home Minister Adachi Kenzo's Cooperative Cabinet Movement (a movement aimed at forming a cooperative cabinet by the Minseito and Seiyukai parties).

In 1934, he resigned as president of the Minseito Party, and thereafter, as a senior vassal, he participated in the nomination of the successor prime minister and in the deliberations on important national policies following the Okada Keisuke cabinet. He consistently expressed a critical stance towards the war, but was unable to have any influence in the political world. Towards the end of the Pacific War, he plotted with Konoe Fumimaro, Hiranuma Kiichiro, and Okada Keisuke to force the resignation of Tojo Hideki, and formed the Koiso Kuniaki cabinet. However, the war ended without him taking any concrete action to end it. He died on November 20, 1949.

[Kenichi Yoshii]

"Reminiscences of Kofuan, by Wakatsuki Reijiro (1975, Yomiuri Shimbun)" ▽ "Biographies of Japan's Prime Ministers 11: Wakatsuki Reijiro/Hamaguchi Yuko, by Aoki Tokuzo and supervised by Hosokawa Takamoto (1986, Jiji Press)" ▽ "Prime Minister Wakatsuki Reijiro: Chief Plenipotentiary at the London Disarmament Conference, by Toyoda Yutaka (1990, Kodansha)" ▽ "Biographies of Former Prime Ministers Series 16: Wakatsuki Reijiro, supervised by Mikuriya Takashi (2006, Yumani Shobo)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

大正・昭和期の官僚、政治家。号は克堂。慶応(けいおう)2年2月5日松江藩士奥村仙三郎の次男として生まれ、叔父若槻敬の養子となる。1892年（明治25）東京帝国大学仏法科卒業、大蔵省に入る。愛媛県収税長、大蔵省主税局内国税課長、主税局長を経て、1906年（明治39）第一次西園寺公望(さいおんじきんもち)内閣、ついで1908年第二次桂太郎(かつらたろう)内閣の大蔵次官に就任。1911年大蔵次官を辞し貴族院の勅選議員となった。第三次桂内閣、第二次大隈重信(おおくましげのぶ)内閣の蔵相にも就任。この間立憲同志会、憲政会の創立に加わった。1924年（大正13）護憲三派内閣の内相となり、普通選挙法、治安維持法を成立させた。1926年1月加藤高明(かとうたかあき)首相の病死で憲政会総裁を継承、内閣を組織した（第一次若槻内閣）が、1927年（昭和2）枢密院が台湾銀行救済の緊急勅令案を否決したため総辞職した。1930年浜口雄幸(はまぐちおさち)内閣のもとで、ロンドン海軍軍縮会議の首席全権を務め、難航のすえに条約を締結した。1931年4月浜口の病状悪化のためかわって立憲民政党総裁に就任、第二次若槻内閣を組織、浜口内閣の政策を継承した。しかし満州事変の勃発(ぼっぱつ)で政策の基本とした幣原(しではら)外交、緊縮財政の破綻(はたん)は決定的となり、内相安達謙蔵(あだちけんぞう)の協力内閣運動（民政党、政友会両党による協力内閣成立を目ざした運動）によって総辞職を余儀なくさせられた。

　1934年民政党総裁を辞任、以後は重臣として岡田啓介(おかだけいすけ)内閣以降の後継首相指名、重要国策の審議に加わった。戦争に対しては一貫して批判的な立場を表明し続けたが、政界への影響力をもつことはできなかった。太平洋戦争末期には近衛文麿(このえふみまろ)、平沼騏一郎(ひらぬまきいちろう)、岡田啓介らと東条英機(とうじょうひでき)退陣を画策、小磯国昭(こいそくにあき)内閣を成立させた。しかし戦争を終結させるための具体的な行動をとることなく終戦を迎えた。昭和24年11月20日死去。

［芳井研一］

『若槻礼次郎著『古風庵回顧録』（1975・読売新聞社）』▽『青木得三著、細川隆元監修『日本宰相列伝11　若槻礼次郎／浜口雄幸』（1986・時事通信社）』▽『豊田穣著『宰相・若槻礼次郎　ロンドン軍縮会議首席全権』（1990・講談社）』▽『御厨貴監修『歴代総理大臣伝記叢書16　若槻礼次郎』（2006・ゆまに書房）』

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例