The Abe Cabinet was overthrown five months later for reasons entirely
different, but equally significant. Here the issue turned mainly on
Japan’s growing economic difficulties. During the winter of 1939-40 a
rice shortage developed, and “bootleg” prices soared toward 50 yen per
_koku_ (the five bushel unit)--dangerously close to the level which
stimulated the “rice riots” of 1918. In September 1938 the Abe Cabinet
had fixed ceilings on all prices. When the rice shortage developed, it
had to back down on its own ruling. In November it raised the official
price from 38 to 43 yen per _koku_. By this time, however, the farmers
had already sold their crops, and the gains were reaped by the rice
dealers.
Outspoken criticisms were expected in the Diet and, rather than meet
them, the Abe Cabinet resigned in mid-January. The incoming Yonai
Cabinet had to face the music. One outspoken member of the Minseito
party, Takao Saito, challenged not only economic conditions, but the
war itself. His striking speech of February 2, 1940 attacked Wang
Ching-wei’s proposed regime (Japan’s puppet government) in China
as nothing more than a “central government in name.” After casting
doubt on the prospects of achieving the “new order in East Asia,” he
asked what the Japanese people had received in return for their great
sacrifices in the war. Even more serious, in the eyes of Japan’s
army leaders, was Saito’s declaration that, in view of China’s large
territory and army, it “is doubtful whether Japan can overthrow” Chiang
Kai-shek’s regime. A critical electric power “famine” which developed
at this time, and forced many factories to shut down, underlined the
truth in Saito’s remarks. The Japanese people backed Saito so strongly
that several months passed before the authorities dared to expel him
from the Diet.