Japanese Group


The Japanese Group was an unofficial name for a political grouping in the Hellenic Parliament in 1906–08.

Name

Although the group had been created in June 1906 after the parliamentary elections of that year, their popular name was given to them by the journalist Vlasis Gavriilidis, in an article in the Akropolis newspaper on 10/23 February 1907, where he likened their combativeness with the ferocity displayed by the Japanese soldiers during the recent Russo-Japanese War.

Members

The group's members were:
The elderly Dragoumis was the group's titular leader, but the real driving force was Gounaris, a young lawyer, who had been influenced by his experiences during his studies in France and Germany, particularly the Bismarckian social legislation. Protopapadakis was an engineer, and remained Gounaris' closest collaborator for the rest of their careers, while Vozikis had achieved the remarkable feat of being elected to Parliament at the age of only 27.
The group comprised members from various parties and political orientations. This prevented their coalescence into a distinct political party, but the Japanese themselves never appear to have attempted such a transformation, i.e., opening the group to become a true mass party. Gounaris' own reluctance to step into the fore played the main role in this.

Aims

The main aim of the "Japanese" was the political crisis of Greece following the state bankruptcy of 1893, the defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1897, and the imposition of the International Financial Control in its aftermath. The "Japanese" criticized the political establishment, and the fruitless alternation of parties in power, and proposed radical modernization policies, as well as maintaining an anti-elitist and anti-corruption rhetoric, aiming to uphold moral values.

Dissolution

The group was dissolved when Prime Minister Georgios Theotokis offered cabinet positions to Gounaris, Protopapadakis, and Repoulis in June 1908, which the first two accepted. Gounaris was sworn in as Minister for Finance, but during the discussion for the budget he was so severely criticized by his former collaborators that he resigned. Despite its failure, the "Japanese Group" nevertheless served as a harbinger of political reform, which came following the Goudi Pronunciamiento in 1909, and the rise of Eleftherios Venizelos to power.