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| 1918, April 5 |
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| British and Japan marines landed at Vladivostok. | 1 |
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| May, 16 |
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| A Sino-Japanese treaty was signed. | 2 |
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| July 6 |
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| Japanese commanders took control of Vladivostok and the eastern terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway. An announcement of intervention (Aug. 3) was issued. The Siberian Expedition was launched (See 1918–20) with 75,000 Japanese troops. The other troops sent by France, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States left by early 1919; the Japanese stayed over four years. | 3 |
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| Aug |
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| Rice riots erupted in towns and cities throughout Japan, spurred by the rise in the price of foodstuffs (rice principal among them) during the boom of World War I. They were mercilessly crushed. | 4 |
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| Sept. 29 |
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| The Terauchi cabinet resigned because of its inability to cope with the unrest of the rice riots. Hara Takashi (Kei, 1856–1921), the first common prime minister, formed a government. Corruption and refusal to consider universal suffrage caused alienation among the populace toward party politics. | 5 |
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