Hara Takashi was assassinated on 4 November 1921, shortly before the Washington negotiations began. While Navy Minister Admiral Katō Tomosaburō was away, Hara had taken the naval portfolio himself instead of appointing another officer. That act is considered a possible precedent for a civilian commoner simultaneously leading the cabinet and supervising the navy. His death was followed by a short caretaker phase and then the government of Viscount Takahashi Korekiyo, who belonged to the established peerage. The suggestion that Hara's survival could have changed Japanese civil-military relations remains a counterfactual. It identifies a possible institutional route without establishing what a longer Hara government would have done.
Notable Point · 3:06:07-3:09:42
Hara Takashi and an interrupted civilian-control precedent
Hara's assassination removed a commoner prime minister who had begun establishing a precedent for civilian control of the naval portfolio.