1926 → emperor Yoshihito was succeeded by Emperor Showa → also referred to as emperor Hirohito.

many of Japans political, economic, and social problems → continued and worsened due to his reign. Financial crisis →such as banking crisis in 1927 → led to increasing public resentment towards civilian govt.


1. in 1920s → Japan had many banks → but many of them were small.

These banks → were focused on the small number of borrowers → whom they loaned large amounts of money to.
→ these borrowers tended to be from the same few industries.
2. These made banks vulnerable. if industries did not do well financially → the banks would have difficulty collecting their loans.
→ this was what happened after WW1.
to make matters worse → new loans that most Japanese banks issues - in 1923 → were to companies that were not stable.
By 1927 → there was widespread panic among the Japanese → that banks did not have enough money due to bed debts.
→ japan then fell into a financial crisis → as people tried to withdraw their deposits → leading to collapse of over 20 banks.
4. Collapse of banks led to widespread suffering among the common people who lost their savings.
Japanese government → tried to deal with the crisis → by introducing new policies → to stabilize the banks.
by early 1929 → Most banks were stable and making profits again.
6. It seemed the crisis was over.
All this was to change with the wall street crash in October 1929.
  • for economic crisis, you cannot just mention this alone, you have to mention this with at leat one other factor, like the great depression.