Hara Takashi

(also Hara Kei). Born Sept. 2, 1856, in Morio-ka; died Nov. 4, 1921, in Tokyo. Japanese political figure and lawyer.

Hara was minister of communications in 1900 and 1901 and home minister from 1906 to 1908, in 1911 and 1912, and in 1913 and 1914. He became president of the Seiyukai Party in 1914 and head of Japan’s first parliamentary party government in 1918. In response to the rise of the democratic movement, his government widened the electoral franchise in 1919. The government actively pursued, however, intervention in the Soviet Far East and aggression against China. Hara was assassinated by a right-wing terrorist dissatisfied with the government’s domestic policies.