Agriculture Minister Yamasaki
By Kan-ichi Yamaura
Premier General Hidéki Tohjo carried out a reshuffling of his Cabinet in April last chiefly to facilitate the execution of wartime policies in a more vigorous manner. Mr. Tatsunosuké Yamasaki, who had previously held twice the post of Agriculture and Forestry Minister, was installed in the same office for the third time. Originally, he had been an official of the Education Ministry. After serving as sectional chief of the Accounts Bureau and director of the Department of General School Affairs, he left government service to become a member of Parliament. In 1927, when the Seiyukai Cabinet of General Ghi-ichi Tanaka was formed, he was appointed Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Education. For two years he held this office under three successive Education Ministers.
In August, 1934, with the resignation of the Saito Cabinet, Admiral Keisuké Okada formed a new Ministry, and Mr. Yamasaki was appointed Agriculture Minister. Both public and official quarters felt amazed that a person who had long been connected with educational affairs should have been selected to head the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Owing to a heavy slump in silk prices and short harvest, the formulation of a judicious farm-village policy for that year had become the most pressing problem. Mr. Fumio Goto, who had been Agriculture Minister in the Saito Cabinet, becoming Home Minister in the Okada Ministry, turned over the difficult business of agricultural administration to Mr. Yamasaki. The press cirticized the new Cabinet for its irresponsibility and the change of Mr. Goto's post. Even agrarian and marine products organizations of sundry descriptions expressed their dissatisfaction at the appointment
of Mr. Yamasaki as Agriculture Minister. For his own part, Mr. Yamasaki wholeheartedly devoted himself to the task of solving diverse agrarian problems, and succeeded in ameliorating the conditions of farm villages to an appreciable extent. After discharging his duties successfully for one year and eight months, he tendered his resignation with the fall of the Okada Cabinet.
When Prince Fumimaro Konoye advocated the voluntary dissolution of all political parties in the country with a view to establishing a national political body which would unreservedly co-operate with the Government, a national service political movement was inaugurated, and as a result, the present Taisei Yokusan Kai (National Service Association) was organized as the new single-dimensional quasi-official structure of the nation. Under the Tohjo Cabinet, the Taisei Yokusan Kai has grown into a formidable supplementary organ of the Government. It controls and regulates political activities through its allied organization called the Yokusan Seiji Kai (National Service Political Association). To this association belong almost all the members of both houses of the Diet and representative men of diverse influential quarters. Mr. Yamasaki was formerly the head of the Political Affairs Investigation Department of the Yokusan Seiji Kai.
From the latest line-up of the Tohjo Cabinet it is clear that it has been reconstructed to absorb the potential political force into its fold. In this sense, the appointment of Mr. Yamasaki as Agriculture Minister and Mr. Tadao Oh-asa as Home Minister, respectively prominent members of the now defunct Seiyukai and Minseito and leading staff members of the Yokusan Seiji Kai, is highly significant. Also importance should be attached to the selection of Viscount Okabé as new Education Minister, who was previously a key man in the erstwhile Kenkyukai, once the greatest political party in the House of Peers. According to Mr. Yamasaki, it is desirable that, for the purpose of manifesting true statecraft, a few statesmen bred in some political parties should be included in the Cabinet, simultaneously interweaving
the wishes and feelings of the nation with the affairs of the State. However, he does not approve of the raison d'être of those liberal political parties which have been lately dissolved. For that reason, he had been very enthusiastic about the political reformation movement so long as he remained the head of the Political Affairs Investigation Department of the Yokusan Seiji Kai. From the political viewpoint, Mr. Yamasaki as State Minister is expected to be a needful asset to the Tohjo Cabinet.
With the onrush of parliamentarism in the Meiji era, the liberal "democratic" movement made rapid headway in the country and bureaucracy gave way to party politics. When the Sino-Japanese War terminated, bureaucratic Hirobumi Ito formed the Seiyukai. After the Russo-Japanese War, General Taro Katsura organized the Doshikai, which was subsequently developed into the Minseito. Faced with the two-way political force controlled by the Seiyukai and the Minseito, the administration authorities had no other alternative but to comply with the dictates of party politics. This unhappy situation prevailed until Prince Konoye urged the dissolution of political factions as a means to crystallize politics on a one-way national basis. With the dissolution of all the political parties, the Taisei Yokusan Kai was formed as the mouthpiece of the political and other enterprises of the nation. Later on, the Yokusan Seiji Kai was organized and thereby crystallization of national political force was actualized. It is, therefore, logical that the Cabinet should requisition the services of members of the Yokusan Seiji Kai to maintain utmost co-ordination between politics and administration. Mr. Yamasaki's entrance into the Tohjo Cabinet can be treated in this light. Apart from the political consideration, it must be observed that Mr. Yamasaki has been chosen to administer agricultural affairs on account of his past experiences, so that efficient distribution and production of foodstuffs in wartime would be assured under his guidance.
Mr. Yamasaki started his career as a bureaucrat and then switched to the political field. In 1924, he withdrew from government service and was elected to the House of Representatives
on a non-party ticket from his native prefecture of Okayama. After becoming a parliamentary politician he joined the Seiyukai, but at first failed to secure a prominent position. At that time, the Seiyukai was led by the late Mr. Kisaburo Suzuki, Mr. Ichiro Hatoyama and the late Mr. Kaku Mori. His opportunity came when he was made chief of the Kikakuin (Political Affairs Research Board), which was something like the present Planning Board. Then he served as Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Education. With the formation of the Okada Cabinet he left the Seiyukai to accept the post of Agriculture Minister. For this act of opportunism he was called a "political turncoat" by parliamentary circles. It seems that Mr. Yamasaki joined the Okada Cabinet with the intention of securing a better opening to display his abilities.
During his tenure as Agriculture Minister, he proved himself a shrewd administrator. When the Okada Cabinet collapsed, he resigned and, obtaining the support of some twenty politicians who had seceded from the Seiyukai, formed a political club under the name of Showa Kai. The late General Sénjuro Hayashi, who undertook the task of forming a new Cabinet, requested Mr. Ryutaro Nagai and Mr. Chikuhei Nakajima, respectively prominent personalities of the Minseito and Seiyukai, to join his Ministry by severing their political connections. They declined his offer and General Hayashi appointed Mr. Yamasaki as Agriculture Minister, additionally giving him the post of Minister of Communications. Thus Mr. Yamasaki became a State Minister for the second time promptly breaking off his relations with the Showa Kai, which he himself had sponsored. This action of him, too, was severely assailed by political quarters
The Hayashi Cabinet was formed in February, 1937. It collapsed in June of the same year and the first Konoye Ministry was organized. In July, 1937, the China affair broke out, plunging Japan into a state of emergency. In consequence, it became imperative that politics in Japan should be thoroughly revamped so as to make it conform to the national policies of the Government.
However, no tangible result was achieved until the second Konoye Cabinet propagated the movement for promoting single-dimensional politics through the dissolution of the existing political organizations. Recognizing the need of the times, all the political parties voluntarily disbanded themselves and thus facilitated the emergence of the Taisei Yokusan Kai. The crystallization of politics reached a new height during the term of the third Konoye Cabinet, and this hastened the subsequent appearance of one-way politics under the present Tohjo Ministry. From this evolution of national politics it is obvious that the visionary statesmen of Japan have always acknowledged the imperativeness of having a mono-State politics. Among those who championed such a cause mention may be made of Mr. Yamasaki, the late General Hayashi and Prince Konoye.
No sooner Mr. Yamasaki entered the arena of parliamentary politics than he self-consciously realized that the political force in the country must be made uniform to fuse it with the force of the administration. With this object in view, he always seized the opportunity of joining the Cabinet, separating himself from the sphere of parliamentary politics. Though his political vacillation was strongly disfavoured by the proponents of party politics, he justified his stand by pointing out that he was endeavouring to bring about a rapprochement between the administration and politics He joined the Okada Cabinet swayed by such an impulse. Again, the very same conviction impelled him to enter the Hayashi Ministry. General Hayashi, who advocated the purging of parliamentarism for stimulating the growth of single-calibre national politics, found in Mr. Yamasaki an ardent enthusiast. Unfortunately, Mr. Yamasaki could not translate his idea into action, because he became unpopular for his "new-fangled" notion.
Historically speaking, the outbreak of the Manchurian incident and the "May fifteenth" and "February twenty-sixth" affairs changed the course of national politics, and many younger politicians envisioned the upsurgence of single-dimensional politics sooner or later. One year prior to the occurrence of the
current China affair, a select political coterie called the "Oghikubo group" was formed with Prince Konoye as leader. Its members occasionally held meetings at the house of Count Yoriyasu Arima at Oghikubo in the suburbs of Tokyo. The object of such deliberations was to devise a tentative plan for the organization of a nation-wide political body, absorbing the power of parliamentary politics. Among those who assembled were the late General Hayashi, Mr. Toyotaro Yuki, now governor of the Bank of Japan, Mr. Ryutaro Nagai, Mr. Chikuhei Nakajima, Mr. Yamasaki, Mr. Tadashi Ohara and Count Arima. Admiral Kiyotané Abo and Mr. Yonézo Mayéda were sympathetic supporters of the group. When General Hayashi fomed his short-lived Ministry, he attempted to adopt the political policy of the "Oghikubo group." After his failure, Prince Konoye organized the new Cabinet, and very soon the China affair ensued. The unexpected Sino-Japanese hostilities spurred the growth of a political adjustment, and before the third Konoye Cabinet resigned the crystallization of politics under the ægis of one nation-wide body was fairly attained. Then the commencement of the now continuing Pacific war propelled the harmonious consummation of single-dimensional politics, long cherished by the "Oghikubo group."
The new Agriculture Minister, being a man of scrupulous disposition, feels his responsibility keenly. He has the mind of a mathematician and is wont to solve difficult problems in a thoroughgoing statistical manner. That is why he is passionately interested in investigation and planning on the basis of actual data available. When in 1934 he became Agriculture Minister for the first time, the country was in the grip of an acute agrarian slump. The cocoon price went down to two yen and fifty sen per kan. It finally registered as low as one yen and fifty sen per kan as against the present price of twelve yen per kan. In addition, a series of natural calamities took place, such as a drought in Kyushu and Shikoku, a cold disaster in the northeastern part of the country, a flood in the Hokuriku district and depredations in the Kansai area as a sequel to
heavy storm. Due to these natural calamities, the output of rice depreciated considerably. In the preceding year, rice production amounted to 71,000,000 koku, but in 1934 it came up to only 57,000,000 koku. Mr. Yamasaki, by exhibiting high administrative ability and genius for planning, liquidated the adverse repercussions of these disabilities. In view of this commendable record, and especially when he is a veteran of agrarian affairs, it can be said that he is quite suited to undertake the assignment of supervising and guiding the production and distribution of foodstuffs and thus stabilize the wartime livelihood of the nation. The post of Agriculture and Forestry Minister is, indeed, an important one. Whoever assumes this office must have the practical knowledge and aptitude to solve the current pressing problems, particularly to bolster the staying power of agrarian economy. Since Mr. Yamasaki has made a personal study of agricultural economy and the food problem, it is genecally expected that as Agriculture Minister at this moment of unprecedented emergency confronting the nation he would demonstrate his worth.