Yurika Ehara
Yurika Ehara | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President of Akashi | |
| In office 10 February 1940 – 1 September 1980 | |
| Prime Minister | Herself (1940–1970) Masaki Ōshiro (1970–1972) Tarō Yukimura (1972–1974) Kasumi Kuroki (1974–1977) Naoko Nemoto (1977) Yumiko Nagatsuki (1977–1979) Hikaru Katayama (1979–1980) |
| Succeeded by | Masako Nakai |
| Prime Minister of Akashi | |
| In office 10 February 1940 – 1 September 1970 | |
| President | Herself |
| Succeeded by | Masaki Ōshiro |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 2 November 1905 Akanshi, Kagi, Akashi |
| Died | 18 December 1989 (aged 84) Hirakawa, Matō, Akashi |
| Nationality | Akashian |
| Political party | National Union |
| Alma mater | Royal Military Academy Strasbourg |
| Occupation | Military officer |
Yurika Ehara (Miranian: 友里花 江原; Gothic: 𐌾𐌿𐍂𐌹ᚴ𐌰 𐌴𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌰; 2 November 1905 – 18 December 1989), commonly known as Yurikara, was an Akashian military officer and stateswoman. Having come to power by winning the Akashian Civil War, she served as Prime Minister of Akashi from 1940 to 1970, and President of Akashi from 1970 to 1980. A dominant figure in twentieth century Akashian politics, she is considered the central architect of the modern Akashian state.
Yurikara attended military academy in Acrea. When the Akashian Civil War erupted, she formed her own faction, the National Renewal Movement. A combination of a careful defensive strategy and shrewd machinations around the other factions allowed the NRM to triumph. She took power on 10 February 1940, simultaneously occupying the posts of President and Prime Minister. She convened the Constituent Assembly to write a new Constitution, which was approved by referendum, and won the 1940 presidential election. The NRM became the National Union, which won 7 general elections in a row.
Yurikara forged a distinctive political program based on civic nationalism, state-led development, and a pursuit of national "grandeur". She presided over a lengthy economic boom, widespread prosperity, the development of Akashian popular culture, and various socially liberal reform projects. Her 30 years as Prime Minister and additional decade as President represent a record for democratically elected leaders in Tyran.
Growing frustration with Yurikara's personalised leadership and focus on national "grandeur" ultimately erupted in nationwide protests and strikes in 1968, known as the Summer of Freedom. She formed a national unity government to resolve the crisis, taking a restrained approach and introducing political reforms to "open up the system". She stepped down as Prime Minister in 1970, but remained President for two more terms, until losing the 1980 presidential election to Masako Nakai. She wrote her memoirs in retirement, and died in December 1989.
Yurikara remains a significant figure in Akashian history, credited with consolidating the Akashian state and overseeing rapid economic development and modernisation. Critics fault her excessively personalised leadership and unrealistic obsession with national "grandeur". The basic tenets of Yurikarism have formed a consensus in public life, and the National Union claims maintenance of her legacy.
Early life
Yurika Ehara was born on 2 November 1905 in Akanshi, a village on the banks of the Akangawa river, today located in Kagi. She had a younger sister, Nina (1908–1984), to whom she was very close and protective of throughout her life.
The family was well-off, and her parents raised Yurika with ambitions that she would enter high society. She read widely as she grew up, being particularly interested in history, politics, literature, and philosophy. Her historical reading led to an interest in military strategy, and in turn she took up fencing and equestrianism as hobbies.
Strongly dissatisfied with her experience of high society, she decided to pursue a military career instead.
Military career
She attended the Royal Military Academy Strasbourg in Acrea, where she trained as an officer cadet. She was a good student, and met the Aku group there, who would become close aides.
After graduating from the academy, she was commissioned into the Akashian military. She served with an infantry regiment stationed on the Kagi peninsula. As an officer, she led by example and cultivated a close relationship with her fellow soldiers. She participated in their exercises and sought to remember their personal details, winning their respect.
Akashian Civil War
Yurikara was attending a military wargame in Ryuku, Acrea, when the Akashian Civil War erupted. Returning to Akashi, she rallied her regiment and formed her own faction, the National Renewal Movement. Based in Mikasa, the NRM managed to occupy the Kagi peninsula, where they entrenched themselves and maintained a defensive strategy.
She sought to administer her territory fairly, and the experience of war shaped her syncretic and pragmatic worldview. This period consolidated her inner circle, which came to comprise the Aku group and Kozue Hidaka.
The defensive strategy allowed the NRM to build strength while the United Red Army and Great Akashi Army fought each other fiercely, with the government of the "old republic" destroyed in the process. The NRM and URA largely allied to defeat the GAA. Afterwards, Yurikara triumphed in a power struggle with a combination of offensives against an exhausted URA and generous concessions to gain a peace deal.
She entered Hirakawa on 10 February 1940, the 5th anniversary of the war beginning, and proclaimed a new republic, promising a new constitution, rapid elections, and "the destruction of the old party system that has brought us to bloodshed".
Consolidating power
Yurikara provisionally assumed the posts of President and Prime Minister, simultaneously. With the Akashian economy ruined by the war and a loss of 1 million people, reconstruction assumed immediate priority. Among her first acts in office were nationalisation of natural resources and strategically important sectors, and land reform, instituting the common land system.
She mainly relied on conciliation and coalition-building to consolidate power, although some of her symbolic displays of strength were controversial. The high-profile influence of the Aku group in her inner clique and the transformation of the NRM into a political party, the National Union, generated bitter criticisms from her opponents.
The promised elections to the Constituent Assembly were held in April 1940. The NU won 48% of the vote and a plurality of party seats. The final constitutional draft was presented in October, envisioning a presidential system and declaring Akashi a state founded on popular sovereignty and "the union of Miranians and Goths". It was overwhelmingly approved by referendum.
Yurikara subsequently won the presidential election held shortly after, and the first provincial elections at the end of the year saw the NU victorious in all 5 provinces. The Constituent Assembly remained in office for two more years, completing the six codes of law, before a new general election was held in 1942, at which the NU won a single-party majority — the first of 7 under Yurikara.
The Yurikaran age
Yurikara dominated Akashian politics and public life through her simultaneous service as President and Prime Minister, allowing her to ably switch between the unifying role of a head of state and the directive role of a head of government. One historian described the years 1940–1970 as "the Yurikara era", by comparison with the traditional imperial dating system.
Economic policy
Yurikara worked closely with her finance minister, Ayane Saikawa, to rebuild the Akashian economy. They pursued a state-driven model of development, in which the state had a significant planning role and the private sector followed its directions. Import substitution industrialisation was pursued to build up the industrial base.
A series of five-year plans were implemented that expanded, in successive order, the energy industry, heavy industry, and chemical industry. Yurikara favoured a policy of national champions, supporting the emergence of large companies that could drive economic growth. Although she never espoused autarky, her desire to diversify the Akashian economy as much as possible was certainly influenced by the concept.
Nationwide public works projects also helped bring down unemployment and transform Akashian cities. Akashi's rivers were harnessed for hydroelectricity, while its mineral resources channeled into the development of industry.
After a difficult start in the immediate aftermath of the war, economic growth rapidly took off. Average growth for the 1940s was 10,81%; for the 1950s, 9,93%; and for the 1960s, 4,98%.
The government's progressive taxation and social corporatism policies translated this growth into general prosperity. By the 1950s, Akashi could boast full employment, low inequality, minimal poverty, and a standard of living among Eracura's best.
Among redistributive policies, Yurikara introduced measures that incentivised cooperatives and a law that made profit sharing mandatory in all companies.
Domestic policy
Yurikara's government created an advanced welfare state, which included compulsory universal education, universal health care provided through a tripartite system (national health insurance, employer-provided insurance, and government aid). Pensions and unemployment insurance were increased, and a range of benefits were introduced for parents, children, and the disabled, including free school meals and milk, parental leave, and annual leave.
The sovereign wealth fund and profits of state-owned enterprises provided social dividends to citizens.
Tripartite negotiations between the government, National Trade Union Council of Akashi (Zenrōkyō) and Akashi Business Federation (Keidanren) became the basis of the economy. The cautious, conservative approach of the Zenrōkyō suited Yurikara fine, as its spring wages offensives became ritualised affairs that moderated wage demands.
Public housing was massively expanded, aided by the government's nationalisation of Akashian land, and the majority of the population came to live in public housing.
Yurikara established the AKH as the national public broadcaster, and the Ministry of Culture. Her tenure saw the creation of Akashian arts policy and a flourishing pop culture, particularly in the cinema. This was complemented by wide-ranging historic preservation policies, which benefited Akashi's geisha, oiran, and traditional swordmaking; the latter was nationalised and subsidised.
She introduced several modernising reforms, such as promoting the use of romaji alongside kana to improve literacy, a reformed Gothic alphabet, and media quotas to protect minority languages.
Yurikara promoted civic nationalism to avoid the divisions that had caused the civil war, but her vision of Akashi as founded on "the union of Miranians and Goths" was criticised for neglecting Akashi's other minorities. She also implemented social engineering policies to maintain a distinctive Goth identity, going so far as to push for the preservation and the modernisation of Gothic and discouraging the study of standard German. Critics saw this as a tactic to maintain an artificial distinction of the Goths as separate and distinctive from Germans.
Foreign policy
Yurikara pursued an ideal of national "grandeur", desiring to have Akashi punch above its weight on the international stage. Her domestic policies were all shaped by this goal, as the state-driven economy, national champions, promotion of Akashian culture, and protection of Goths as a minority were designed to increase Akashian prestige and distinctiveness.
Her defining achievement in foreign policy was signing the Treaty of Handon in 1957, which made Akashi a founding member of the Common Sphere. The Common Sphere became the focus of Akashian trade, and contributed to close relations with several states, such as Cacerta, Gylias, Delkora, and Megelan. Yurikara's view of the CS was somewhat paradoxical: she nurtured the hope that it would become an eastern Tyranian bloc that would be a counterweight to great powers like Ossoria and Acrea, but at the same time she strongly opposed perceived moves towards a supranational union that would undermine Akashian sovereignty.
Yurikara traveled extensively in office, and enjoyed playing the role of a stateswoman, taking pride in how Akashi's economic and cultural successes transcended its small size and population. She was cautious towards large states, and had a complicated relationship with Acrea, both respecting it and fearing its power. Akashi-Acrea relations were mixed during her tenure, as Acrean officials perceived her promotion of a Gothic identity as unfriendly and, at times, rude.
Politics
Under Yurikara's tenure, the NU was a dominant party, winning over 50% of the vote in both National Assembly elections and presidential elections. Its in-built advantage, coupled with strict regulations on campaign finance, campaign advertising, and campaign periods, led other parties to develop innovative ways to mobilise and build support, leading to the emergence of koenkai and later pop politics. The NU also made use of these developments in turn, maintaining its dominance.
Yurikara practiced a very personalised form of politics, relying heavily on her charismatic authority. She treated the cabinet as an extension of her authority. Apart from Ayane Saikawa, none of her other ministers had comparable prominence, and many were treated as interchangeable.
Although the NU radiated an aura of invincibility, Yurikara neglected to build up a party apparatus, viewing the NU more as a way to mobilise support. Thus, the NU's dominance began to erode at the local level. An early warning sign came when the NU lost the 1960 provincial elections, being relegated to opposition in all provinces.
Reputation
Yurikara's public image stirred strong reactions. She was enormously self-confident, had a penchant for dry humour, and reveled in the spectacle of power.
Her appearance was both distinctive and a source of pride. She meticulously took care of her long hair and dyed it pink, and wore a blue-and-red uniform inspired by that of Royal Military Academy Strasbourg. This limited wardrobe presented her as the perpetual war hero, reminding Akashians of her crucial role in ending the civil war.
She was described by friends as having a romantic personality, capable of both intimacy and aloofness, and guided by a quasi-mystical view of power. One of her ministers quipped that her ideal role was "the sage prophet, delivering proclamations from on high". Her rhetoric similarly addressed citizens sometimes in terms more appropriate for a monarch than a republican officeholder, which opponents seized on and lambasted.
Her attitude towards opposition was contradictory: both lamenting the absence of worthy opponents and enjoying showing off her mastery of politics to the opposition. Kasumi Kuroki perceived both Yurikara and Kozue Hidaka as displaying "the satisfaction of power, and a kind of arrogance", which grated on opponents but at the same time appeared free of elitism and capable of unexpected modesty.
Although she was Akashi's first female leader, she was criticised by feminists for not doing enough to advance women's rights.
It would be a frequent remark among historians that Yurikara overstayed her welcome, and these traits increasingly frustrated the public, leading to her turbulent ejection from power.
End of premiership
Yurikara's victories in the 1965 presidential election and 1966 general election proved to be hollow triumphs. The public grew tired of her obsession with national "grandeur" and neglect of quality of life issues — working hours had trended slightly longer than the Eracuran average since the civil war, national champions inspired increasing concern about corporate welfare, and frustration with the "sclerotic" political system built up. Student youth were disillusioned with the focus on vocational education and the government's obsession with the economy.
All these elements converged in May 1968, when protests escalated into civil unrest — general strikes, demonstrations, the occupation of universities and factories. Protesters even managed to occupy the AKH headquarters, broadcasting as Free AKH.
Yurikara maintained a strict refusal to suppress the unrest by force. An attempt to negotiate the Shiomi Accords simply caused the destruction of the Zenrōkyō, as its membership ousted the leadership and continued wildcat strikes, forming the General Council of Trade Unions of Akashi (Sōhyō) instead.
For much of 1968 and 1969, Akashi was engulfed by chaos, and it seemed the country was on the brink of revolution or civil war. However, the mood at protests, strikes, and occupations was carnivalesque, with pithy slogans capturing the mood of alienation such as "More pay, less work!" and "More good, less bad!". Although slogans like "Destroy factories, build parks!" hinted at internal tensions, the student–worker alliance proved resilient.
Despondent over the chaos, Yurikara disappeared for some 5 weeks, taking refuge in a Kisekidō shrine in Shimachi. She would later write in her memoirs that she'd suffered "a nervous breakdown" and needed the isolation to recover. Her msyterious disappearance shocked the country, but encouraged the protesters who felt revolution was imminent.
To try and calm the situation, Yurikara delivered a televised address on 15 May 1969, calling for national reconciliation. The address is one of the best-remembered moments of her career, as she broke her self-confident façade and lamented the conflict that engulfed the country, and appeared on the verge of tears as she pleaded, "We few Akashians should never again make each other's noses bleed!". She announced she would retire as Prime Minister at the next election.
She formed a national unity government, comprising all parties in the National Assembly, and introduced reforms that were named "opening up the system", including electoral reform, a reduction of the presidency's powers, and stronger referendum provisions. These were approved by voters in a referendum in June 1969.
She stepped down as leader of the NU ahead of the upcoming election, with Masaki Ōshiro succeeding her. However, she remained a candidate for the presidency, and won the 1970 presidential election. She left the premiership on 1 September 1970, after a record 11.161 days in office.
Later presidency
Yurikara now adjusted to a purely ceremonial head of state role in a semi-presidential system.
With Yurikara gone from day-to-day politics, the implosion of the first party system continued. Masaki Ōshiro proved a less capable leader, and his loss of a budget vote caused a snap election in 1972 that felled the NU as a major party. For the rest of the decade, a left–centre coalition held office, at times precariously, taking advantage of fragmentation on the right.
Some biographers argue that Yurikara became a less polarising figure after retiring from government. Her handling of the Summer of Freedom ultimately won praise for averting another civil war, and the public respected her more after seeing her emotionally pleading for reconciliation on 15 May 1969.
She adapted well to the new reality of cohabitation, forming good relations with the mainly Socialist Party prime ministers that followed. Ironically, she held her immediate successor Masaki in low regard, considering him a political "non-entity". She got along best with Kasumi Kuroki, regretting that the "black budget" of 1977 had forced her from office prematurely, and Naoko Nemoto, who was also the finance minister throughout the decade.
Nevertheless, her political career was reaching its end: the 1975 presidential election was the first to reach the second round, where she won with a narrow margin of 50,2%.
Retirement
Yurikara lost the 1980 presidential election, being beaten by Masako Nakai in the second round. It was the first election she'd lost in her career, and the vote margin constituted a public rebuke amidst the ongoing recession and political impasse.
She retired to a home in her native Akanshi, and wrote her memoirs. These were published in three volumes — Endeavour, Call to Greatness, and Renewal — and became bestsellers in Akashi.
She lived to see the first centre-right prime minister since the war, Ran Tsukuda. The two developed a friendly relationship, with Ran occasionally inviting Yurikara to the Prime Minister's Residence to seek her advice. Yurikara admired Ran's ability to dominate the political scene of the neondai and respected her preservation of the Yurikaran consensus.
Death
Yurikara died of a cerebral aneurysm while visiting Hirakawa on 18 December 1989, aged 84.
Ran granted Yurikara a state funeral, which was attended by numerous guests, both eminent Akashians and foreign dignitaries. Ran delivered the eulogy at the memorial service — seven days before she was deposed herself during the neoliberal conspiracy.
Yurikara was cremated and the urn with her ashes was interred in the family grave in Akanshi.
Private life
Yurikara never married nor had children. She was close to her sister Nina, and was an affectionate and playful aunt to Nina's children.
She mainly practiced Kisekidō and Buddhism. She was strongly spiritual, treating the exercise of power as a mystical experience, and could be very contemplative in private.
Her personal hobbies included reading, playing chess, and horseback riding. She would often visit the Akashian countryside, inviting herself as the guest of various local officeholders, in order to practice equestrianism. She led an active lifestyle, practicing kendo and jōdō daily. She supported the study of Miranian martial arts, considering them a valuable method of spiritual and personal development.
Legacy
Yurikara is considered the founder of modern Akashi. She presided over its rapid economic development, turning it into a major industrial nation of Eracura, and overcame the ethnic divisions that had caused the Akashian Civil War. She was seen by the public for a long time as the exemplar of the stable, prosperous society created during her tenure.
Her fundamental impact on Akashian politics endures in the form of the Yurikaran consensus. However, her more contentious policies have since been abandoned. Her economic nationalism led her to push for the establishment of new industries as a matter of principle, some of which turned out to be unsustainable failures. Her "skillful grandstanding" on the international stage could not compensate for Akashi's intrinsic limitations that prevented it from being more than a small power, leading later governments to embrace the CS as a key priority of diplomacy.
Perhaps the most damaging, her preoccupation with national "grandeur" increasingly distanced her from daily life and caused her to ignore growing discontent with social issues and quality of life issues; the fierceness of the Summer of Freedom took her entirely by surprise.
Yurikara's transformative role in Akashian history has been a source of nostalgia for her era. The National Union survived and endured after her death as the main flag-bearer of Yurikarism, although it was destroyed as a major party and became a smaller member of the pale crimson bloc. The strength of the Yurikaran ideals was demonstrated by the popular revolt caused by the neoliberal conspiracy, and the light blue bloc's reconciliation to the consensus in order to thrive.