Photo/Illutration Takashi Hara, in a photo taken on Oct. 22, 1921, 13 days before he was stabbed to death (The Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The Japanese idiom "gaden insui," written with four kanji characters that combined mean "draw water into one's own rice paddy," denotes self-serving behavior.

Its variant, "gaden intetsu," the last kanji of which stands for "iron," implies pork barrel politics practiced by politicians who promised to lay railway tracks in their electorates to secure local votes.

The ultimate master at this was said to be Takashi Hara (1856-1921), who served as prime minister from 1918 to 1921.

That's what I thought, anyway.

But my perceptions changed when at the Hara-Kei Memorial Museum in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture, I was informed of recent theories about his statesmanship. 

According to Atsumi Tazaki, a curator at the museum, Hara was thoroughly discriminating in his assessment of the economic viability of planned service routes at the time.

"But during the era of Japan's postwar economic miracle, the Liberal Democratic Party continued to expand the nation's railway network even though deficit-ridden local services kept growing in number, and popular criticism against the LDP somehow came to target Hara vicariously," Tazaki explained.

A politician of the Meiji and Taisho eras (1868-1926), Hara became Japan's first "commoner prime minister," descended from neither aristocracy nor prominent feudal clans.

Among the museum's exhibits, I was most impressed by his diary's meticulously detailed entries.

Referring to a heavyweight in his party by name, he griped candidly, "Most of his achievements owe to my planning and scheming, but he shows me no consideration."

A framed work of his calligraphy shows two kanji characters for "hojaku," a Buddhist term he favored and wrote often in his later years. It means "serving people without expecting anything in return."

This definitely reveals a much nobler side of him than what went into his diary. I wonder if he reached that lofty state of mind after he became prime minister.

Returning from Morioka by Shinkansen, I headed to the Marunouchi South Exit at Tokyo Station, where a memorial plaque stands beside a ticket vending machine.

It marks the spot where Hara was fatally stabbed on Nov. 4, exactly 100 years ago. Amid heightening public discontent over political corruption and a financial crisis, rumors were circulating then about plans being hatched to assassinate the prime minister.

His death was untimely. However, Hara did manage to live up to his ideals as a statesman, controlling his hostility toward political bigwigs from prominent feudal cliques and joining forces with them when necessary.

Will Prime Minister Fumio Kishida be capable of following Hara's example in dealing with his party's real big shots?

If he chronicles his struggles in his diary without inhibition, its historic value should be on par with Hara's.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 4

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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