long-standing ills of a depressed peasantry and the industrial cartel system; and the reappearance of a vigorous labor movement gives promise of continued economic reforms.
Political reform has been the chief focus of interest since the surrender. Here the Japanese have had the advantage of considerable experience in democratic ways. The parliamentary government of the 1920’s was far from perfect, but it did operate with success, and most members of the Japanese electorate are familiar with the meaning and procedures of voting. Liberal elements at the time of the surrender were weaker than they had been in the 1920’s, but among older political leaders and urban intellectuals and white collar workers there remained a solid core of liberal thinkers, who, freed from the restrictions and fears of the old regime, emerged as proponents of a new democratic order in Japan.
Assisted by a sweeping purge of all leaders identified with militarist or ultra-nationalist policies, these men have taken over the government of Japan. Baron Shidehara, who had distinguished himself as a liberal leader in the 1920’s, became Premier in October 1945. He was followed in this post the next May by Yoshida, another leader with the same liberal background. The emperor lent his assistance to a program of reducing the imperial institution to the status of a constitutional monarchy. On New Year’s Day 1946 he issued a rescript denying his own supposed divinity, and he has taken the necessary steps to permit the framing of a new Constitution, designed to make the emperor little more than a symbol of national unity. The mass of