Juko Hamaguchi, Japan (1870-1931)
Juko Hamaguchi was born in Kochi, Tosa province, Japan. Renowned for his determination, he adopted a policy of domestic austerity and better relations with the USA and Great Britain. He was a politician and Prime Minister (1929-30) at the outset of the Great Depression. Rising rapidly through the ranks, he entered politics and in 1914 was elected to the Diet (parliament). In 1924 he became finance minister in the government of Kato Takaaki and then minister of home affairs. Soon he was elected President of the Liberal Minseito (Democratic Party), and in July 1929 he was made Prime Minister.
Hamaguchi won re-election the following year in one of the cleanest contests in the history of Japanese politics. In order to combat rising inflation, he returned Japan to the gold standard and promoted mechanisation and rationalisation of industry. The effects of the world depression, however, deflated the Japanese economy even further than Hamaguchi had intended. His attempts to force the military to yield to civilian leadership aroused right-wing disapproval. His acceptance of the terms of the 1930 London Naval Treaty limiting armaments was especially resented, and he was shot in the Tokyo Railway Station by a right-wing youth in November 1930. He died of his wounds almost a year later.