Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan has fully aligned itself with western countries, and the state apparatus has also fully borrowed from the West, and Japan's major media and newspapers have also been improved. But on the one hand, these media served as propaganda machines for the Japanese government, and on the other hand, they also promoted Japan's development. More than 100 years ago, there was a civil unrest in Japan, and the media played a role in fueling the direct disintegration of a cabinet, but there was a Chinese element in it.
<h1>A civil unrest</h1>
Japan's civil unrest a hundred years ago stemmed from the "rice" that Japan likes to eat. Why rice? This also starts from the First World War, japan has achieved economic take-off because of the First World War, and it can be said that Japan has made great progress as a result of this war. According to the "Political History of Japan", after World War I, Japan quickly changed from a debtor country to a creditor country, while industry achieved great development, the proportion of agricultural population gradually decreased, from 1910 to 1920, Japan's primary industry population decreased from 64.3% to 52.8%, which is different from industrialized countries, agriculture accounted for 50%, Japan can be said to have achieved the ideal state of industrialization.
However, with the prosperity of the Japanese economy, domestic prices have also risen sharply, and the most direct impact on the Japanese people is the rice that the Japanese love to eat, when the price of rice soared, and the price of rice rose, which led to the instability of the middle and lower classes. In April 1918, in the face of high rice prices, the Japanese government issued the Outer Rice Management Order, which required large enterprises such as Mitsui & Co., Suzuki Shop to import large quantities of foreign rice to balance the rise in domestic rice prices. Moreover, the Japanese government has also cracked down on some unscrupulous traders who take advantage of the opportunity to raise prices to profit from them, and use the previously issued "Windfall Prohibition Order" to require merchants not to profit from 7 kinds of commodities such as iron, coal, cotton, and cereals, and violators will be fined or even sentenced. The Japanese government also advocates that people eat less rice and more miscellaneous grains. In this way, the consumption of rice in the country is reduced.
The Japanese government's original intention was to reduce the price of rice, but it achieved the opposite result, and the price of rice did not fall but rose, reaching three times that of 1918. According to sources, this is related to the fact that Terauchi Masaki's cabinet hoarded rice in Siberia, which further reduced the shortage of rice in the country.
According to the "Modern History of Japan", despite the above measures taken by the Japanese government, the price of rice has not decreased. In January 1918, it was 15 yen per stone of rice, and in June it rose to 20 yen, and rice in Tokyo even reached 39 yen. The continuous rise of rice has finally triggered a civil unrest in Modern Japan, which is the "Rice Riot" in Japan's modern history, and the Japanese name is very subtle, strictly speaking, it is "Rice Turmoil".
The unrest was first triggered in Toyama Prefecture, Japan. In July 1918, when a cargo ship called "Ibuki Maru" in the port of Lujin in Toyama Prefecture was loading rice and transporting it to Hokkaido, more than a dozen female workers demanded that the shipper sell the rice to local residents and not load it on the ship again. But the owner of the cargo did not want to call the police. After the police persuaded the women workers to leave, the people in the port gathered more and more and demanded that the rice be sold to them. In several other villages, people have gathered in front of rice shops to ask their owners to sell rice. It wasn't until August that more villages were involved in the rallies.
On August 20, the "rice riots" spread throughout Japan, and even violent incidents occurred, bloodshed occurred from time to time, and even coal miners went on strike to participate in the unrest. The rice-caused unrest lasted for 50 days, with millions of participants, and Japan dispatched more than 100,000 troops to suppress the rice-induced unrest. It was only after strong Japanese repression that the riots ended.
<h1>Causes of unrest</h1>
Although this turmoil caused some losses to the Japanese economy, although it was caused by the high price of rice, according to Japanese experts, the turmoil was actually caused by exaggerated propaganda by Japan's developed media. At that time, the Japanese media spread to each city with its communication network and reader network. There are also newspapers large and small across the country, which, in the pursuit of "democracy", report some new and peculiar news from time to time to attract the attention of the people.
Originally, the rise in rice prices was an objective problem, but the major newspapers commented on the price of rice from time to time, which caused panic among the Japanese people. In particular, after the rice riots, the newspapers originally wanted to publicize the story with compassion, but they triggered an even greater riot. Of course, the turmoil in Japan a hundred years ago, the media only played a role in fueling the waves, and more importantly, the rising price of rice in Japan caused public dissatisfaction.
In fact, this unrest in Japan can be completely avoided, but the pursuit of democracy by major newspapers is related to anarchy. In the end, the essence was a contest between the Japanese government and the media at that time. Because the Terauchi cabinet is an "unconstitutional" cabinet, there are few parties involved. During the rice riots, the major newspapers were always suppressed, and the major newspapers were dissatisfied with the Japanese Terauchi Cabinet, because the Terauchi Cabinet issued a ban and strictly prohibited the media from reporting, which deepened the contradiction between the Terauchi Cabinet and the media.
This conflict between the cabinet and the media has accompanied the rice unrest. According to Japanese sources, after the Japanese government lifted the ban on media reporting on the rice riots, a journalist protest broke out in Japan, which set off a climax in Yokohama, Fukui, Ishikawa and Kyushu in Japan. On August 25, Osaka held a Kansai press conference to demand that the government lift its repression of the media and demand freedom of expression. Osaka's Asahi Shimbun even published a statement from the Japanese emperor, the president resigned, and the writer was arrested.
At that time, major newspapers pointed out that there was a problem with the cabinet in Terauchi, and even one accusation was related to China. Because Prime Minister Terauchi lent China a huge sum of money, the major newspapers believed that it was damaging Japan's interests. This loan is the famous "Nishihara loan" in modern history.
<h1>A loan</h1>
Nishihara borrowing refers to a huge amount of money borrowed by Duan Qirui from Japan from 1917 to 1918, which was borrowed in eight installments, reaching 140 million yen. The lender was none other than Terauchi Masaaki's favorite, Nishihara Kameyama, then Duan Qirui's Japanese adviser.
At that time, Duan Qirui's Beiyang government was so poor that it had no money, and many domestic separatist forces would not "pay tribute" to Duan Qirui, and some even had money more than the central government, so if Duan Qirui wanted to make the government operate, he must have money in his hands, otherwise even the salaries of government employees could not be guaranteed, and the government could not operate at all.
In July 1917, after Duan Qirui became prime minister, he grasped the power of the Beiyang government, and as soon as he took office, he used force to fight against the "Dharma Protection Movement". Of course, it was borrowed, and it was the Japanese who took the initiative to lend it to Duan Qirui, which was a huge amount of money borrowed from Duan Qirui by the Japanese cabinet under the coordination of Nishihara Kameyama.
Japan is not a great benevolent person, as the saying goes, it is not profitable to get up early. During Yuan Shikai's government, Japan borrowed money from Yuan Shikai with several European countries, and collected huge profits from it, and also obtained China's salt tax and tariffs, so the Japanese who tasted the sweetness were naturally willing to borrow money from Duan Qirui, and at this time, Japan's economic prosperity was not short of money, and it could monopolize the interest on the loan.
But japan did not encounter Yuan Shikai, but the ghostly Duan Qirui. However, this time, Japan's sincerity is very large, there is no lion's big mouth, the conditions proposed are not harsh, and it is not like Yuan Shikai who borrowed from the Western powers, and also had to pay a huge handling fee. This time, there was no handling fee for the loan. Of course, Japan also has requirements, such as asking for China's railway rights, but at this time, the railway required by Japan has not yet been built, and some collateral is verbally agreed. Of course, China wanted to give Japan the rights and interests of shandong and east-west railways, minerals, forests, etc., but it was not implemented later.
After lending 145 million yen to Duan Qirui, it can be said that Duan Qirui has added wings. He can not only use military expenditure to raise a powerful Beiyang Army, but military expenditure accounts for only a quarter, and the rest of the money Duan Qirui takes to pay salaries.
Did Japan lend this huge sum of money later return to Japan?
Duan Qirui has a hand in playing japan, and he has no intention of repaying it from the date of borrowing. At that time, Feng Guozhang was worried about Duan Qirui's loan, and he thought that if he borrowed so much money, what would he take back to Japan in the future? Duan Qirui said a word: "We are using Japan for a while, who still plans to return it to them, and then they will all be pulled down with a glare!" It can be seen that Duan Qirui's borrowing of this money from Japan is like a fraud.
Therefore, the huge amount of money lent by Masayoshi Terauchi to Duan Qirui made the Japanese media feel worried, believing that it was harmful to Japan's interests. Practice has proved that it is normal for major Japanese newspapers to be worried, and after the rice turmoil, the cabinet of Masaki Terauchi stepped down. However, the huge amount of money lent to Duan Qirui was lost 9 years later because of the fall of the Beiyang government.
Of course, Japan wanted to ask China for a huge amount of money lost, but in 1929, the Japanese minister to China, Rishino, committed suicide because the money was not successful, and this huge amount of money was not heard.
But Japan did not lose money, compared with the Qing Dynasty's Jiawu reparations, Nishihara's borrowing accounted for only half, so it is equivalent to repaying half of China's money.
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