The of January 1914 involved collusion between several high-ranking members of the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...
, the British company
Vickers
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...
, and the German industrial conglomerate of
Siemens AG
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the posit ...
. It was one of several spectacular
political scandal
In politics, a political scandal is an action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public outrage. Politicians, government officials, Political party, party officials and Lobbying, lobbyists can be accused of various ...
s of late
Meiji and
Taishō period Japanese politics
The politics of Japan are conducted in a framework of a dominant-party bicameral parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy. A hereditary monarch, currently Emperor Naruhito, serves as head of state while the Prime Min ...
, leading to the fall of the
cabinet of
Yamamoto Gonnohyoe
Yamamoto (written: lit. "base of the mountain") is the 9th most common Japanese surname.
Notable people with the surname
*, Japanese politician
*, Japanese World War II flying ace
*, Japanese judoka
*, Japanese manga artist and character design ...
.
Kickbacks in shipbuilding
The Japanese navy engaged in a massive expansion program during the late
Meiji period
The was an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonizatio ...
and early
Taishō period. Many major orders of materiel (such as advanced warships and weaponry) were imported from Europe. Siemens had secured a virtual
monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...
over Japanese naval contracts in return for a secret 15%
kickback to the Japanese naval authorities responsible for procurement.
In 1914, the British firm of
Vickers
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...
(via their Japanese agents
Mitsui Bussan
is a Japanese general trading company ( ''sogo shosha'') and a core member of the Mitsui Group. For much of the post-war period, Mitsui & Co. has been among the largest of the five great ''sogo shosha'' (Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Itochu, Sumitomo, M ...
) offered the Japanese naval authorities a more lucrative deal, involving a 25% kickback, with 40,000
yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro.
T ...
for
Vice Admiral
Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral.
Australia
In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of Vice ...
Matsumoto Kazu, the former Chief of the Navy Technical Department, specifically involving the procurement of the
battlecruiser
The battlecruiser (also written as battle cruiser or battle-cruiser) was a type of capital ship of the first half of the 20th century. These were similar in displacement, armament and cost to battleships, but differed in form and balance of att ...
''Kongō''. When the German headquarters of Siemens found out about the deal, they sent a telegram to their Tokyo office demanding a clarification. An expatriate employee of the Siemens Tokyo office (Karl Richter) stole incriminating documents indicating that Siemens had previously paid a bribe of 1000
pounds sterling
Sterling (Currency symbol, symbol: Pound sign, £; ISO 4217, currency code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound is the main unit of account, unit of sterling, and the word ''Pound (cu ...
(~142,000 today) to the Japanese navy in return for a wireless contract, sold the documents to the
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency ...
news agency together with a copy of the telegram and fled back to Germany.
Breaking of the scandal
The London ''
Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...
'' newspaper edition of 21 January 1914 reported on the scandal, specifically the criminal proceedings against Karl Richter. Japanese newspapers, notably the ''
Asahi Shimbun
is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan.
The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...
'',
[
] immediately reported the details of the corruption scandal, and the issue was raised in the
Diet
Diet may refer to:
Food
* Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group
* Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake
** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
by members of the
Rikken Doshikai political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
. Both the Army and Navy Intelligence Services and the ''
Kempeitai
The , , was the military police of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The organization also shared civilian secret police that specialized in clandestine and covert operation, counterinsurgency, counterintelligence, HUMINT, interrogated suspects ...
'' launched investigations.
Another newspaper, ''Japan Weekly Chronicle'', reported that an Admiral Fuji (Fujii Terugoro) of the navy procurement office had confessed to receiving payments from Vickers of a total 210,000 yen in 1911 and 1912 on various occasions. It reminded its readers that whether or not the money was received illegally under Japanese law, it was certainly illegal under the British
Prevention of Corruption Act, 1906.
Karl Richter was arrested in Germany for his theft of the incriminating papers, and sentenced to two years in prison. The head of the Siemens subsidiary in Japan,
Hermann Kessler faced a public accusation in the
German Reichstag by
Karl Liebknecht
Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht (; ; 13 August 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a German politician and revolutionary socialist. A leader of the far-left wing of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Liebknecht was a co-founder of both ...
, but was not charged.
Japanese political fallout
Large-scale demonstrations erupted in
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
in early February 1914, which turned violent on 10 February and 14 February. The largest protest drew some 50,000 attendees. The navy, backed by the Prime Minister Yamamoto, had earlier demanded a huge increase of 70 million yen for its budget, but this was so large that it would reduce the scope for a business tax reduction that had previously been expected and lobbied for. Public opinion was outraged.
Although Prime Minister Yamamoto was not directly implicated in the bribery, public dissatisfaction with him continued to grow, and he was challenged to explain the bribery allegations before the
House of Peers.
Minister of the Navy Saito Makoto offered a reduced budget request of 30 million yen as a compromise, but this failed to stem the scandal.
After both houses of the Diet refused to pass the 1914 Navy budget, and with the cabinet facing a vote of censure in the lower house, Yamamoto resigned on 24 March 1914, bringing down his entire cabinet with him. Given that Yamamoto was also an officer of the Japanese Navy, a
court martial
A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the mili ...
demoted Yamamoto and Saito Makoto, both of whom had previously held the rank of Admiral. Subsequent courts martial sentenced several leading members of the navy procurement department to prison sentences, issued heavy fines to Vickers and Siemens, and banned both companies from future participation in contracts. Still, prosecutor-general
Kiichirō Hiranuma declined to prosecute some of the navy officers alleged to be involved, perhaps due to fears of sullying the navy's reputation too much.
Yamamoto's cabinet was further damaged by influential politician
Hara Takashi
was a Japanese politician who served as the Prime Minister of Japan from 1918 until his assassination.
Hara held several minor ambassadorial roles before rising through the ranks of the Rikken Seiyūkai and being elected to the House of Repr ...
revoking his support. While Takashi expected his
Rikken Seiyūkai
The was one of the main political party, political parties in the pre-war Empire of Japan. It was also known simply as the ''Seiyūkai''.
Founded on September 15, 1900, by Itō Hirobumi,David S. Spencer, "Some Thoughts on the Political Devel ...
political party to fill the resulting power vacuum,
Ōkuma Shigenobu
Marquess was a Japanese politician who served as the prime minister of Japan in 1898, and from 1914 to 1916.
Born in the Saga Domain, Ōkuma was appointed minister of finance soon after the Meiji Restoration of 1868, aided by his friendship w ...
became the new prime minister instead.
See also
*
Siemens Greek bribery scandal of 2008
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siemens Scandal
Politics of the Empire of Japan
1914 in Japan
Corruption in Japan
Political scandals in Japan
Japanese military scandals
Weapons trade
1914 in international relations
Germany–Japan military relations
Germany–United Kingdom military relations
Japan–United Kingdom military relations
20th-century military history of Japan
20th-century military history of the United Kingdom
Military history of the German Empire
Siemens
January 1914
Conspiracies
Vickers
Imperial Japanese Navy
Corporate scandals