Matsukata Masayoshi
Sohō was initially a champion of liberal democracy and populism, as he felt that a free, open and democratic social and political order in emulation of the western nations in general, and the United States in particular would enable Japan to modernize and strengthen itself in the shortest possible time. His newspapers and magazines were a thorn in the side of the government during the first administration of Matsukata Masayoshi, criticizing the numerous corruption scandals of the time. However, following the First Sino-Japanese War and the Triple Intervention, his political views moved to the right of the political spectrum. By the second half of the 1890s, he came to be regarded as a conservative champion of the Meiji oligarchy, and was a close confidant of Prime Ministers Yamagata Aritomo and Katsura Tarō. By 1905, the "Kokumin Shinbun" was regarded as a government mouthpiece, and as such, its offices were targets of protesters during the Hibiya riots.