Joyce C. Lebra

Ōkuma Shigenobu and the 1881 Political Crisis

Of major significance both to the political history of the Meiji period and to the career of Ōkuma Shigenobu was the series of events known as the 1881 political crisis. This upheaval involved principally the problems of establishing a national parliament or Diet, of selling government colonization properties in Hokkaido, and of dismissing Okuma from the government. Although the crisis concerned nearly everyone in the government at some point and shook the political world, Ōkuma was more closely connected with these issues than any other single individual in the government. The crisis presents many problems which are still being debated by Japanese historians, and no concensus has emerged.