Yōshū Chikanobu Scene of the Diet 1890s, WikiMedia Commons.

The Peace Preservation Act of 1925

“Anyone who has formed an association with altering the kokutai, or the system of private property, and anyone who has joined such an association with full knowledge of its object, shall be liable to imprisonment with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding ten years.”

With the vague and subjective term kokutai, the government was now able to outlaw any form of dissent.