Austerity-driven military cuts triggered an assassination and coup attempt

Evidence

Interest rates were raised “into the teeth of the depression” and government spending was cut by almost twenty percent from an already low level. By the time the London Naval Treaty, which condemned the Japanese navy to permanent inferiority status, was ratified in October 1930, the military had had enough. Prime Minister Hamaguchi was shot by a supporter of the military in November 1930 and died of his wounds the following year. Unperturbed, the finance ministry pressed on. In early 1931 they tried to cut another ¥28 million from the army and navy budgets. In October 1931 a plot by the army to overthrow the government was uncovered. The two facts were related. Civil-military tensions reached a head. The government blinked first and resigned in December 1931. — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 541

Categorization

• XREF: The financing of fascism from austerity grievances connects to the broader question of how deflationary policy radicalizes politics — resonance with the rise of fascism in Germany. — connects to: Japan’s austerity decade radicalized the military and led to assassinations. — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 543; Japanese austerity produced depression, assassination, and militarism. — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 544; Romanian austerity in the 1980s contributed to Ceausescu’s violent overthrow (+1 more)
• CANDY: The austerity minister whose budget cuts got the prime minister shot and nearly triggered a military coup is a startling anecdote about the political stakes of fiscal policy.

Broader Connections

• Japan’s austerity decade radicalized the military and led to assassinations. #corroborates (0.90) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 543
• Japanese austerity produced depression, assassination, and militarism. #corroborates (0.90) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 544
• Romanian austerity in the 1980s contributed to Ceausescu’s violent overthrow #corroborates (0.75)