---
node: taisho
type: period
slug: taisho_era
title: "Taisho era"
lead: "The Taisho era (1912–1926) was a short, urbane period known for party politics under \"Taisho democracy\" and a booming mass urban culture. It ended with the death of Emperor Taisho in December 1926."
published: 2026-07-09
updated: 2026-07-09
image_file: taisho_era.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Okuragumi_building_in_Taisho_era.JPG"
image_author: "Unknown author"
image_license: "Public domain"
---

## Overview

The Taisho era (1912–1926) was short and urbane. Under "Taisho democracy," party politics advanced: Hara Takashi became the first commoner prime minister in 1918, and universal male suffrage arrived in 1925 — paired, in the same year, with the repressive Peace Preservation Law.

## Key developments

In World War I, Japan joined the Allies and enjoyed an export boom, and in 1915 it pressed the Twenty-One Demands on China. The rice riots of 1918 showed the strains, and the Great Kanto Earthquake (1923) devastated Tokyo and Yokohama. Mass urban culture bloomed: department stores, cafes, radio broadcasting (1925), and "modern girls and boys."

## End and transition

Emperor Taisho died in December 1926, and the Showa era began.