Envisioning a Liberal Empire in East Asia: Yoshino Sakuzō in Taisho Japan

This essay re-examines the ideas and activities of Yoshino Sakuzō, who provided theoretical underpinning for Taisho Democracy. It explores Yoshino's writings on international and regional politics along with his analysis of domestic politics to bring to light the neglected dimension of Yoshino's work as a China specialist. His commentary and analysis on China-Japan relations reveal the centrality of Asian questions in the tenets of Taisho Democracy. I argue that Yoshino's understanding of China-Japan relations in terms of peaceful expansionism led him to conceptualize a new state-society relation within Japan.