Seigō Nakano

was a journalist and politician in Imperial Japan, known primarily for involvement in far-right politics through leadership of the ''Tōhōkai'' ("Far East Society") party, as well as his opposition to Tōjō Hideki and eventual suicide under murky circumstances.

Born in the city of Fukuoka, Nakano went on to attend Waseda University for four years, writing a number of articles for the journal ''Nihon oyobi Nihonjin'' (Japan and the Japanese) before graduating in July 1909. In these and in other speeches and articles he would produce, he expressed his political views. Nakano maintained an opposition to Japan's establishment throughout his life, criticizing in turn oligarchs such as Katsura Tarō, the ''Seiyūkai'' cabinet of Baron Tanaka Giichi, and eventually Tōjō Hideki, the last of which ultimately cost him his life. Despite this opposition, however, Nakano would remain committed to working within political parties and the diet, rejecting the violent coups and putsches of young officers. Of great influence on his political thought was the ''Ōyōmei'' tradition. Embracing an intuitionist, autonomist view of the individual, ''Ōyōmei'' thought emphasized the following of what one identifies as "good" or "just", over wealth and obedience to corrupt authorities. In the case of Saigō Takamori, who Nakano held as a hero far greater than himself, ''Ōyōmei'' sanctified his rebellion against the Meiji Government as heroic.

In his views of the Meiji Restoration, Nakano viewed the event as the result of popular discontent at the Shogunate's despotic rule. But though the leaders of the restoration had been united in a heroic effort against despotic government, a split occurred in which men valuing liberty such as Saigō were sidelined and instead, the Meiji oligarchy allowed Western ideas to flood into the country, eroding Japan's unique spirit and creating a system of oligarchic-bureaucratic rule which was opposed to popular will.

During the 1st Constitutional Protection Movement, he relentlessly attacked the Katsura cabinet and the ''hanbatsu'' system of clique government as a writer at the ''Asahi Shimbun'', earning him both a reputation as a liberal and the displeasure of the paper, leading him to launch the ''Tohojironsha'' paper in 1916. After election to the diet in 1920, Nakano would join a generation of younger, reformist politicians, eventually aligning with Inukai Tsuyoshi and the ''Kakushin Kurabu'' (Reform Club) in 1922, but later believed no serious change could be made outside of one of the two major parties and transfer to the ''Kenseikai'' in 1924. Following the Manchurian Incident, Nakano admired the plotters, contrasting their decisive action with the Tanaka cabinet's wavering between hardline policy and capitulation to the United States on China issues.

To form a strong government to deal with the climate of crisis in the early 1930s, Nakano first attempted to organize a union of the ''Seiyukai'' and ''Minseito'', then organizing the ''Kokumin Domei'' (Citizens’ Alliance) political party with ''Adachi Kenzo'' when he failed. Due to disagreements between the two personalities, however, Nakano split to form the ''Tōhōkai'' in 1936. Eventually, he would join the ''Taisei Yokusankai'', but left in late 1940 in protest over the restraints imposed on it by conservative forces, primarily the ''zaibatsu'' and party politicians. He would go on to become a vicious opponent of Tōjō Hideki and his cabinet before committing ritual suicide while under government pressure in 1943. Provided by Wikipedia