What was the Taisho period like?

This was a short 14-year period from 1912 to 1926, which saw opposition to growing state power in the hands of the han bureaucratic clique from the Meiji period.
There was a spread of popular movements which demanded that government abide by the constitution and called for common elections which extended voting rights to all citizens.
This was a period when rice riots and labor disputes occurred, and democratic and socialist movements were heightened.
Such movements are referred to as Taisho Democracy.
However, even these movements in the end could not stem rising nationalism, and Japan would increasingly turn into a militarist state.