Peace Preservation Law
However the forces of reaction grew more powerful and steadily after 1925 there was a retreat from reform, liberal policies and democracy. Pressure from the conservative right forced the passage of the Peace Preservation Law of 1925 along with other anti-leftist legislation, only ten days before the passage of universal manhood suffrage. The Peace Preservation Act curtailed activism on the left--which was not extensive--and the screws were steadily tightened. It outlawed groups that sought to alter the system of government or to abolish private ownership. The small leftist movements that had been galvanized by the Russian Revolution were subsequently crushed and scattered. This was in part due to the Peace Preservation Act, but also due to the general fragmentation of the left. Conservatives forced the passage of the Peace Preservation Law because the party leaders and politicians of the Taishō era had felt that, after World War I, the state was in danger from revolutionary movements. The Japanese state never clearly defined a boundary between private and public matters and, thus, demanded loyalty in all spheres of society. Subsequently, any ideological attack, such as a proposal for socialist reforms, was seen as an attack on the very existence of the state. The meaning of the law was gradually stretched to academic spheres. After the passage of the Peace Preservation Law and related legislation, "kokutai" emerged as the symbol of the state. Kokutai was seen as the barrier against communist and socialist movements in Japan. With the challenge of the Great Depression on the horizon, this would be the death knell for parliamentary democracy in Japan.