The Yamagata-Tokutomi Correspondence: Press and Politics in Meiji-Taishō JapanGeorge Akita and Takashi Itō

Excerpt

The relationship between the press and political figures is as complex as it is significant, and in recent years there has been a noticeable rise in interest in the history of the press-government relationship in Japan. By felicitous coincidence, our work on the relationship between Yamagata Aritomo 山縣有朋, 1838-1922, and Tokutomi Sohō 徳富蘇峰, 1863-1957, coincided with the publication of John Pierson’s excellent biography of Sohō, an exceedingly complicated figure who lived long and wrote much. Pierson’s account illustrates sensitively the dealings between a practicing journalist and Meiji leaders. He analyzes the motives which drove both into each others’ embrace and discusses frankly the rewards and drawbacks of the relationship. His emphasis on the ties between Prime Minister Katsura Tarō 桂太郎 and Sohō casts light on the later Yamagata-Sohō connection, a subject about which, however, he is silent.