Background
Osachi Hamaguchi was born on 1 April 1870 in Kochi Prefecture. The third son of Tanehira Minaguchi, he was adopted into the Hamaguchi family.
濱口雄幸
Osachi Hamaguchi was born on 1 April 1870 in Kochi Prefecture. The third son of Tanehira Minaguchi, he was adopted into the Hamaguchi family.
He graduated from the political science department of Tokyo Imperial University in 1895 and entered the Ministry of Finance.
After serving as chief revenue officer of Yamagata Prefecture, he held various posts as a bureau chief and head of the Monopoly Bureau, and in 1912 became vice-minister of communications under Minister of Communications Goto Shimpei. Later, at the urging of Goto, he joined the political party known as the Rikken Doshikai and became active in party politics. In 1914, after the Siemens bribery scandal had forced the resignation of die Yama-moto cabinet, lie became vice-minister of finance in the second Okuma Shigenobu cabinet, serving under Minister of Finance Wakatsuki Reijiro.
In 1915, while holding this post, he was also elected a member of the Lower House of the Diet from Kochi Prefecture. For a period of some ten years from 1916 on, he represented the Kenseikai (an outgrowth of the Rikken Doshikai) and others, which later became the Rikken Minseito, in its opposition to the Seiyukai of Hara lakashi, and is particularly famous for his controversy with Minister of f inance Takahashi Korekiyo in which he advocated budget reduction. In 1924, when the Kiyoura Keigo cabinet was overthrown and Kato Takaaki formed a new cabinet made up of the three political parties advocating protection of the constitution, Hamaguchi became minister of finance and in 1926 became minister of home affairs in the Wakatsuki Reijiro cabinet. In 1927, when the political party known as the Rikken Minseito was formed, he became its president.
In 1929 he became prime minister and formed his own cabinet.
Reversing the policies of his predecessor lanaka Giichi, he announced a ten-point platform for his cabinet and later carried out budget reductions and lifted the embargo on gold. In addition, through his Foreign Minister Shidchara Kijuro, he adopted a policy of international conciliation, overriding the opposition of naval and military leaders in making Japan a signatory of the agreement drawn up at the London Disarmament Conference. As a result, he was strongly attacked by elements in the Privy Council and in military and right-wing circles. It was a period of severe financial distress due to the world depression, and living conditions for most Japanese were increasingly' difficult. Amid this atmosphere of tension, Hamaguchi was attacked and severely wounded at Tokyo Station by a right-wing youth. In order to quell the confusion in the Diet and insure the ratification of the London agreement, he forced himself to appear in the Diet in spite of his critical condition. As a result, his condition worsened, and in April he turned over the post of prime minister and the presidency of the Rikken Minseito to Wakatsuki Reijiro.
He was a man of sincere character and grave bearing; known popularly as the “Lion Prime Minister,” he lived a life of strict integrity.
