STATE MINISTER CHUJI MACHIDA
By YUKICHI KUROKI
DURING and after the formation of the Koiso Cabinet, rumours went their usual rounds about the revival of the influences of political parties. Apparently, such rumours originated in the appointment of Toshio Shimada and Yonézo Mayéda, both former leading members of the now defunct Seiyukai Party, respectively as Minister of Agriculture and Commerce and Minister of Transport and Communications, and of Chuji Machida, a long-standing political figure who pulled the strings of the erstwhile Minseito Party, as Minister without Portfolio. It goes without saying that the rumours were mere unfounded speculations. The consensus of opinion is that, since both General Koiso and Admiral Yonai were commanded by the Emperor to organize a Ministry, the present Cabinet must be termed a Koiso-Yonai coalition. But if the position of State Minister Machida is brought into bolder relief the present Cabinet appears to be a triumvirate of them.
In the Tohjo Cabinet, the erstwhile political influences were represented by the inclusion of Shinya Uchida and Tadao Oh-asa, former partymen, as Ministers. In the organization of the present Cabinet the same thing has been done. The only difference is that, while in the Tohjo Cabinet there were two former partymen, in the Koiso Cabinet there are three former partymen. Yet there is an impression that Premier General Koiso's selection of three former partymen as Cabinet colleagues has a much wider significance compared to that of his predecessor. Obviously, such an impression should be attributed to the inclusion of a politician of Chuji Machida's calibre in the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio.
A common sense interpretation of Chuji Machida's joining the Koiso Cabinet is that his services have been enlisted by Premier General Koiso as Minister without Portfolio to balance the representation of the now defunct Seikyukai and Minseito Parties. In the Tohjo Ministry, the former Seiyukai and Minseito Parties were respectively represented by Shinya Uchida and Tadao Oh-asa. When General Koiso formed his Cabinet, he chose Toshio Shimada and Yonézo Mayéda as representatives of the former Seiyukai Party. Ordinarily, he ought to have balanced the so-called Seiyukai representation by appointing two Ministers to represent the erstwhile Minseito Party. But the list of the Cabinet personnel was already filled up, and so the only course left open to him was to enlist the services of a former Mineseito member as Minister without Portfolio who would be influential enough to balance or even to outweigh the so-called Seiyukai representation. Consequently, his choice fell upon Mr. Machida who is certainly the most outstanding figure among former partymen.
Strictly speaking, with the dissolution of political parties, the question of giving representation to the influences of party politics on the Cabinet has become an antiquated issue. This does not mean that political forces have ceased to exist in Japan. The Taisei Yokusan Seiji Kai (National Service Political Association) represents all the political forces in the country, and this explains why it is necessary to give representation to political influences on the Cabinet. In connection with the appointment of Mr. Machida as Minister without Portfolio, however, undue prominence should not be given to the part played by the forces operating within the Taisei Yokusan Seiji Kai or to the need of balancing the so-called Seiyukai representation; on the contrary, prime importance should be attached to the fact that he has been included in the Cabinet by Premier General Koiso in full recognition of his ability to render constructive services.
Chuji Machida was born in Akita Prefecture on March 30, 1863. In the previous year occurred what is called the Nama-mughi
incident, resulting in the assassination of some Englishmen by certain Satsuma samurai at Nanamughi, halfway between Yokohama and Tokyo. Britain thereupon dispatched men-of-war to Kagoshima, the stronghold of the Satsuma clan, and bombardments were carried out to force the feudal lord of Satsuma to pay indemnities for the assassinated Englishmen. But the Satsuma clan resisted so furiously the bombardments that British war vessels went away without achieving the purpose for which they had come. No wonder that, being born in that turbulent year, State Minister Machida is endowed with a fighting character and possesses unfailing perseverance and tenacity. During the days of party politics, he rose to occupy a unique position in political circles by dint of his perseverance, tenacity and fighting vigour. He is the oldest among the present Cabinet members.
Young Machida was among the first graduates of the Akita Middle School. Later, he studied at the Law College of the Tokyo Imperial University where he went through a special course. His father was an accountant of the Nambu feudal clan. During his student life, he had no pecuniary trouble whatsoever in prosecuitng [sic] studies. After graduating from the Law College, he joined the Legislation Bureau of the Cabinet through the good offices of the late Viscount Kéntaro Kanéko. The Legislation Bureau at that time was under the charge of the late Tsuyoshi Inouyé, who was dubbed the "chief staff officer" to the Meiji Government. Man of close application as he was, Mr. Inouyé took a practical interest in young Machida who, under his guidance, devoted himself diligently and tenaciously to his work. When young Machida started his career as a junior official in the Legislation Bureau, he there and then became determined to carve out a prominent public position for himself in the future. Spurred by a soaring ambition, he found it impossible to remain content with the position of a junior official. Consequently, he left the Legislation Bureau and took up journalism as a first step toward building up a public career. He joined the newspaper Choh-ya Shimbun and
began to mingle with prominent senior journalists, among whom were Yukio Ozaki and the late Tsuyoshi Inukai, who later became influential statesmen. At the same time, by writing crisp articles on the Constitution and the taxation system, he began to make himself known to the public.
That Mr. Machida in his twenties began to attract the attention of the public through his journalistic activity was by no means a minor feat. After serving the Choh-ya Shimbun for some time, he left it to join the Hochi Shimbun which has now been amalgamated with the Yomiuri Shimbun. This paper, too, he left shortly to start a journal of his own. Thus he came to establish the Toyo Keizai Shimpo (Oriental Economist), which from its very inception began to be received warmly by the reading public. One would have thought that the warm reception given to the Toyo Keizai Shimpo would induce him to stick on to journalistic life, but ambitious Machida who was bent upon coming on the top gave up his journalistic career deliberately in 1893 and joined the Bank of Japan as a director.
Just as during his career as a journalist he established a sound reputation for him, so in the service of the Bank of Japan he made himself known as a shrewd man of finance. Subsequently, he resigned from the Bank of Japan to assume the post of managing director of the Yamaguchi Bank. In this capacity not only he gave full play to his business ability, but also made himself to be recognized as a banker of note. When Mr. Machida by entering the arena of politics finally rose to become a prominent politician and statesman, his opponents, though they criticized many of his political actions, found no fault with him as a keen judge of business and finance. For that reason he came to be referred to in political circles as a "liveried statesman."
In the heydays of political parties, the leading partymen came under three categories, one hailing from bureaucracy, another from the journalistic world and the third from business circles. Mr. Machida, who has served as a Government official,
a journalist and a banker, naturally found himself in an ideal position to mix with the leading partymen of the three categories. It is said that he deliberately went through the bureaucratic mill, journalism and business to qualify himself as a prominent politician and statesman in the future. While he was a middle school student, he made up his mind to become a statesman. He cooly and calmly began to think how he could realize that ambition. He found that experiences in Government service, journalism and business would help him a great deal to gain political influence which would automatically offer opportunities for becoming a statesman. Recently, reminiscing on his long, colourful career, he told some of his close friends: "It was my desire to take up a political career before I became forty by fully preparing the ground for that purpose. But things did not go on schedule, so that by the time I had completed all preparations for taking up politics I had reached the age of forty-eight."
In his preparatory days before taking up a political career, Mr. Machida had already displayed a statesman-like talent, particularly by managing the affairs of the Yamaguchi Bank on a prosperous scale. In fact, he made it one of the most prosperous banking institutions in the country and firmly opposed its affiliation with industrial institutions. The present Sanwa Bank is the successor to the Yamaguchi Bank. Mr. Machida gave finishing touches to his preparations by taking charge of the Hochi Shimbun as its proprietor and president, by establishing relations with the late Marquis Ohkuma, then the leader of the opposition, and by accumulating political funds. In the general election of 1911, he contested for a seat for the first time and was returned to the House of Representatives. He was then forty-eight years old.
Some may think that Mr. Machida joined politics at a very late age. To them it must be pointed out that Mr. Machida joined politics when he was absolutely sure that he could establish a political influence of his own, and so it did not matter much to him whether he entered politics at an early or late
age. Since his first election to the House of Representatives in 1911, he has been so far returned there ten times. His long political career is studded with highlights. Some of them may be mentioned. In the second Ohkuma Cabinet, he was appointed parliamentary counsellor to the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. In 1926, he assumed the post of Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in the first Wakatsuki Cabinet. The same post he held during the Hamaguchi Ministry of 1929 and the second Wakatsuki Cabinet of 1931. He was Minister of Commerce and Industry in the Okada Cabinet of 1934, concurrently holding the Portfolio of Finance for a time. When the Okada Cabinet resigned he was accorded the treatment due to a Minister of State. In January, 1935, he was elected president of the Minseito Party in succession to Baron Reijiro Wakatsuki. During the first and second Konoye Ministries, he served as Cabinet counsellor.
The highlights of his political career would impress one as though all were plain sailing with him; but in reality it was not so. He had to surmount not a few difficulties. When he joined politics, the Kenseikai Party, the predecessor of the Minseito Party, was presided over by Viscount Taka-akira Kato who was assisted by a galaxy of able politicians as executive members. They included Baron Wakatsuki and Osachi Hamaguchi, both former bureaucrats; Chuji Shimo-oka and Tasuku Yéghi, resourceful politicians; Yukio Ozaki, Saburo Shimada, Katsundo Mino-ura and Hironaka Kono, all thoroughbred politicians; and Nao-atsu Kataoka and Kénzoh Adachi, unconventional but capable politicians. Moreover, as ill luck would have it, Baron Wakatsuki and Osachi Hamaguchi were authorities on finance and economy, subjects in which Mr. Machida specialized. Being faced with such a string of able politicians, he found himself at a disadvantage to give full play to his special abilities, and in consequence, he had to bide his time until opportunities came in his way.
The first break for Mr. Machida came when trouble arose between Yukio Ozaki and Viscount Kato. As the former
could not get along with the latter, he left the party of his own accord. Then some of the executive members died in quick succession, with the result that the entire executive burden fell upon the shoulders of Wakatsuki, Hamaguchi, Yéghi and Adachi. This gave Mr. Machida the most-needed opportunity to make his influence felt in the party, and so he rose quickly. Following the organization of the Minseito Party, Mr. Machida stabilized further his influence, but met a powerful rival in Junnosuké Inouyé, former governor of the Bank of Japan. Fortunately for him, Hamaguchi and Wakatsuki retired from political activity, leaving him practically in sole charge of the Minseito Party. Junnosuké Inouye, an authority on finance and economy like Mr. Machida, came forward to contest the presidency of the Minseito Party, but, as he met with an untimely end, the wheel of fortune turned in favour of Mr. Machida who was offered the presidency. He declined to accept the offer and persisted in this attitude for three months, after which he accepted the presidency "at the earnest request of the entire party."
It was in October, 1934, that Baron Wakatsuki intimated his intention to resign from the presidency of the Minseito Party. At that time, a reformist wave in the wake of the Manchurian incident had been sweeping over the whole country, while the stress of the emergency situation had been calling for wholehearted co-operation with the Government and fightnig [sic] services on the part of the political parties and even for the dissolution of the political party system itself. Consequently, gone were the days for the leader of the opposition party or the majority party to form a Cabinet after a Ministerial crisis. In consideration of the new political situation in the country, Mr. Machida thought that he was not fully qualified to accept the presidency of the Minseito Party, and hence he turned down the offer. But as the partymen pressed their request, he assumed the chairmanship of the executive committee which virtually corresponded to the presidency of the party. It was three months after that he accepted the presidency in compliance with the ardent
wishes of his partymen, and the general public on weighing him found him not wanting in statesmanship, ability and vision.
Just as he persisted in refusing the offered presidency of the Minseito party, Mr. Machida no less stubbornly persisted in his opposition to the liquidation of the political party system in the autumn of 1940. He had accepted the presidency with reluctance and with no less reluctance he relinquished it on the disbandment of the political parties in deference to the emergency situation confronting the country. In the former case he was able to enhance his reputation, in the latter he simply bowed down to the inevitable. When the political parties were destined to be dissolved under the stress of the emergency, all partymen vied with one another in boarding the "bus," their slogan being, "Don't miss the bus." Mr. Machida declined to take a seat on the bus: he preferred to watch the situation from outside.
On the dissolution of the political parties, the Taisei Yokusan Kai (National Service Association) was brought into being and the then Premier Konoye was reported to have offered Mr. Machida the post of Privy Councillor. As nothing materialized, it became obvious that Mr. Machida, in spite of his advanced age, was still waiting to do some more constructive services for the good of the State with full confidence in his vigour and ability. His days of waiting came to an end when General Koiso in forming his Cabinet enlisted his services as Minister without Portfolio. State Minister Machida has amassed a store of rich experiences in his long political career, and as such, he is well qualified to offer valuable suggestions and proposals to the Cabinet with a view to terminating the current unprecedented emergency satisfactory to Japan. In his eighty-second year, State Minister Machida is still virile and active and enjoys a sustained popularitiy [sic]. Premier General Koiso by acquiring his services, which will go a long way in helping the formulation of measures essential for accelerating the high-power prosecution of the war, has strengthened the structure of his Cabinet and also has increased its popularity.