The Fukushima incident was a political tumult which took place in Fukushima Prefecture in 1882.
The incident started with the appointment of Mishima Michitsune as governor. His rule was contested by two groups, one in Aizu and the other in the east of the prefecture, which remained separate until the end of 1882, when they were drawn together by their shared persecution.
The Liberal Party (Jiyà «tà Â) developed a significant organisation in Fukushima. Two branches, one in Aizu and another in the east of the prefecture were established in December 1881, two months after the Party itself was established. They were the largest party in the Fukushima Assembly, holding 24 out of the 62 seats, and also the most effectively organised. In addition, they had members in various positions of responsibility in both areas of influence: village heads (kochà Â), subdistrict heads (kuchà Â) and elected members of assemblies at village and subdistrict level. There were also a number of party members with positions of responsibility within the administration.
According to Sato Jiro, Mishima had received three secret orders upon appointment:
One of the first things Mishima did was to purge the administration of ninety members of Jiyà «tà  â this included school teachers who were government employees.
Mishima started setting up the Aizu Rukugun Rengà Âkai (Six Aizu Districts' Joint Committee) to rubber-stamp some controversial policies concerning the road he was building - and for which the local community would have to foot much of the bill. Mishima wanted this Rengà Âkai to consist of thirty members, five from each district. However, the rules committee set up to supervise the election, decided to make the number of representatives from each district reflect the size of the population, and that they should be directly elected by all male taxpayers twenty years old or older. Although Mishima originally wanted to have indirect elections he accepted this, and by early March 46 members had been elected. This election was questioned by the Aizu Jiyà «tà Â, and Igarashi Chikarasuke, the administrative head of Yama district, was sacked and replaced by Satà  Jirà Â.
When the Rengà Âkai met on 16 March, Nakajima Yuhachi was elected chairman. Two resolutions were accepted:
Two conditions were added to this:
The Rengà Âkai did not deal with the course of the road, the level of supplementary funds from the government, or how the tax was to be gathered.
In June it was discovered that the contribution from central government had been reduced from 260,000 yen to 98,000 yen. However, the government also agreed an interest free loan to the Teiseito of 196,000 Yen, which had recruited unemployed ex-Samurai and established its headquarters, the Nisshinkan. Mishima, suspended the Rengà Âkai, taking charge of the road building himself. Furthermore, the corvée labour and taxes were deemed to start in March. Igarashi and other Jiyà «tà  activists were able to get a majority of the Rengà Âkai to sign a petition for a special session of the Rengà Âkai to oppose these developments. This was accompanied by Jiyà «tà  activists proposing civil disobedience against the levies, principally in Yama, Kawanuma and à Ânuma districts.
On 18 August the Jiyà «tà  members of the Rengà Âkai met in secret and resolved that Jiyà «tà  should organise more widespread and structured protests to the road building programme, utilising lawsuits and boycotts. That night the government reacted to the agitation by organising attacks on Jiyà «tà  activists while they were asleep. This is known as the Shimizuya jiken.