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Just for the Record: Ōkuma Shigenobu and the Mediatisation of 1910s Japanese Politic(ian)S

“…54 Record historian Kurata Yoshihiro has argued that it was most likely not Ozaki's own idea but may well have originated when he most likely came across an article entitled 'Shin-jidai to senkyo undō' (The new era and election campaigning) that a journalist of the local Kyoto newspaper Hinode shinbun had published on January 11 and in which the use of gramophone recordings for election campaign speeches was suggested. 55 One might speculate that the use of records in the presidential campaigns in the US that had already gained momentum by then might well have gained attention in Japan. 56 This would not be unlikely since for instance the Tokyo daily Yomiuri shinbun easily drew the comparison between Ōkuma's speeches from the train and William Howard Taft's (1857-1930) 'whistle-stop'.…”