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In this Tl militarists don’t take power. In this tl Hara passes reforms in the government. OTL he did little to help the government but here he takes an active role.
Nipponese Hegemony Chapter I
The Year is 1919 Hara Takashi is the new prime minister of Japan. Hara realizes that Japan faced increasing inflation. *1:He realized the time tested old policies would not work. Thus he decided to try a new approach. Recently Japan had received many colonies in Asia. He knew that most were a financial drain. So he decided to tax the newly acquired Shangdong Province. *2:He also established a tariff. The tariff would increase imported materials from the outside world by 5 percent. What this allowed was for Japan to start relying on the domestic market instead of Heavy dependence on foreign products. It was known as the tariff of 1918. In order to pay back its debt Tanaka created a *3:national Bank. Known as the National Bank of Nippon. He also generated high public land prices to generate revenue. He next turned to building up the infrastructure. He encouraged the Zaibatsus to help fund roads, which would be named after them. *4:What these roads would do is tighten up the infrastructure of Japan. These reforms were revolutionary. Many of the businesses supported Hara because thanks to tariffs they would not be out competed. However in the outside world many European powers looked at these events with alarm. Hara was however a commoner at heart. He knew that dissent was growing and was accused of being a man who would not pass universal suffrage. He realized that if he did not act soon then his popularity would sink. So he created *5:the General election law in 1920, in the law all males aged 18 and older were granted suffrage. In 1921 Hara decided to focus on the new aircraft carriers. The Hosho carrier had been successfully launched. Hara saw in these seaplane carriers “potential”. However the Government could not afford to waste money. However the businesses were prosperous at this time. Hara soon convinced the Yasuda Zaibatsu to fund in the new ships built by the Government. So with aid from the Yasuda, Hara ordered the construction of 4 seaplane carriers. He also ordered construction of 2 Ise class battleships, 4 Kuma class light cruisers. *6:At the 1921 Imperial conference the Anglo Japanese alliance was renewed to preserve peace in the pacific. It also wanted to get rid of potential Nipponese alliance with Germany. At this time Japan soon signed treaties with the USA. Hara encouraged diplomatic reconciliation with the US. He also made promises that the Japanese would continue to trade with USA, and its Philippine provinces would not be attacked. This eased tensions between USA and Japan. However the US was wary at the Japanese naval buildup. In 1922 Hara succeeded in reducing and curbing inflation slowly due to his economic policies. However from socialists and the left he faced much opposition for giving businesses so much power. Hara knew he had to act quickly, so he made concessions by giving labor unions more bargaining rights and setting a minimum wage of 20 yen a week. This calmed down most advocators of human rights, and the businesses accepted it due to it still being incredibly low amount to pay. The workday was also reduced to 10 hours. In this way he quelled the labor sentiment. In 1923 the Great kanto earthquake occurred. Hara was stunned, at first the home ministry was about to declare marital law but Hara had another plan. He soon sent aid to the suffering populace. Hara appealed to the west. He asked for western aid to help ease suffering of Japanese citizens. The British crown soon sent aid. He denounced the false rumors spread in the countries about how cabinet was destroyed and Koreans were behind it. He also appealed to the ICRC for help. Soon volunteers sent supplies and other necessities to Japan. Due to Hara's constant vigilance, much of the populace viewed him with favor. By 1924 his popularity was high and he remained Prime Minister of Japan. In 1925 Japan was making a slow recovery. Hara ordered the day of Sept. 1 to be a national holiday and remembrance of the people who died. Luckily the national bank was saved. Thus most of the government money remained intact. Hara however realized the earthquake had messed up the economy. He tried desperately to fix it. In 1926 Japan had regained stability, due to the investments of the zaibatsu Japanese treasury reaped in huge profits. Using this money Hara ordered a naval rearmament. At this time the communists were becoming a major threat. Hara openly denounced communism as a practice and supported free market capitalism and Democracy. Britain saw this as a way to keep Japan as a democratic country. A new ideology fascism had gained ground in Italy, and Britain wanted to stop its spread and the spread of communism. Many as a savior to Japan consider Hara. He arose in a time of deep turmoil and stabilized Japan.
___________________________________________________________ 1: In otl Hara stuck to old polocies. This led to deep resentment and the rise of militarism, in this tl he takes an active role. 2: established a tarrif, In otl Japan faced many debts. In ordeer to curb the debts he created tarrifs and used them to save Japanese markets. 3: Created a centralized national bank. With a National Bank the inflation would slowly be reduced. 4: Increased internal Jap infastructure 5: Passed suffrage early. In otl he was attacked from all sides for not etablishing a suffrage act. So in this tl he establishes such an act. 6: The Anglo-Jap alliance is renewed. otl it had a lot of support but because Britain did not want to anger USA gave up the alliance. In this tl that does not happen because Hara eases tensions beetween USA and Japan