Japan's largest modern popular uprising toppled the Terauchi government and opened the path to party-led cabinets and broad social reform.
Key Facts
- Duration
- July to September 1918 (over 8 weeks)
- Locations affected
- Nearly 500 (49 cities, 217 towns, 231 villages)
- Estimated participants
- 1 to 2 million people
- Troops deployed
- Over 100,000 troops
- Arrests made
- Over 25,000 arrests
- Origin
- Uozu, Toyama Prefecture
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Sharp wartime inflation driven by the economic boom of World War I caused rice and commodity prices to surge sharply, inflicting severe hardship on urban and rural consumers. Government price-regulation efforts failed, and widespread anger at profiteering merchants and collusion with officials built steadily throughout 1918.
Beginning in the fishing town of Uozu, Toyama Prefecture, a series of popular disturbances spread across Japan from July to September 1918, reaching nearly 500 locations and involving an estimated one to two million participants. The government deployed over 100,000 troops, resulting in dozens of civilian deaths and more than 25,000 arrests.
The Terauchi Masatake cabinet resigned in the aftermath, and Hara Takashi became Japan's first commoner prime minister, establishing the country's first stable party-led government. The riots accelerated reforms in food supply and social welfare policy and galvanized the labor, tenant farmer, women's rights, and burakumin movements of the Taishō era.