February 26 incident

The February 26 Incident (二・二六事件, Ni Ni-Roku Jiken, also known as the 2-26 Incident) was an attempted coup d'état in the Empire of Japan on 26 February 1936. It was organized by a group of young Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) officers. They wanted the purging the government and military leadership because of bad economic policies.

February 26 Incident
1st Lt. Yoshitada Niu and his company on February 26, 1936
Date	26–28 February 1936
Location	Tokyo, Japan
Goals	Restore direct imperial rule under Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) Purge of the Tōsei-ha
Resulted in	Uprising suppressed Loss of Kōdō-ha influence Increase of military influence over government
Parties to the civil conflict
Righteous Army Imperial Japanese Army Imperial Japanese Navy
Lead figures
Shirō Nonaka † Kiyosada Kōda  Teruzō Andō  Hisashi Kōno † Yasuhide Kurihara  Takaji Muranaka  Asaichi Isobe  Motoaki Nakahashi  Naoshi Sakai  Emperor Shōwa Prince Kan'in Kotohito Yoshiyuki Kawashima Hajime Sugiyama Kōhei Kashii Jōtarō Watanabe †
Number
1,483–1,558 23,841

During this incident, the rebels assassinated two former prime ministers and occupied the government center of Tokyo. However, they failed in assassinating Prime Minister Keisuke Okada or take control of the Imperial Palace. Saitō Makoto was killed at his home during an attempt coup d'état. With a lot of opposition against them, the rebels surrendered on 29 February.

This was the last time that a former prime minister was killed until the assassination of Shinzo Abe in 2022.