Japan's Emperor Meiji dies and is succeeded by his son Yoshihito, who is now known as the Emperor Taishō.

Mutsuhito , posthumously honored as Emperor Meiji , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 1867 until his death in 1912. His reign is associated with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which ended the Tokugawa shogunate and began rapid changes that transformed Japan from an isolationist, feudal state to an industrialized world power. Emperor Meiji was the first monarch of the Empire of Japan, and presided over the Meiji era.

, posthumously honored as Emperor Taishō , was the 123rd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 1912 until his death in 1926. His reign, known as the Taishō era, was characterized by a liberal and democratic shift in domestic political power, known as Taishō Democracy. Yoshihito also oversaw Japan's participation in the First World War from 1914 to 1918, the Spanish flu pandemic, and the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923.