|
Japan The Development of Representative Government
The major institutional accomplishment after the
Satsuma
Rebellion was the start of the trend toward developing
representative government. People who had been forced out
or left
out of the governing apparatus after the Meiji Restoration
had
witnessed or heard of the success of representative
institutions in
other countries of the world and applied greater pressure
for a
voice in government.
A major proponent of representative government was
Itagaki
Taisuke (1837-1919), a powerful leader of Tosa forces who
had
resigned from his Council of State position over the
Korean affair
in 1873. Itagaki sought peaceful rather than rebellious
means to
gain a voice in government. He started a school and a
movement
aimed at establishing a constitutional monarchy and a
legislative
assembly. Itagaki and others wrote the Tosa Memorial in
1874
criticizing the unbridled power of the oligarchy and
calling for
the immediate establishment of representative government.
Dissatisfied with the pace of reform after having rejoined
the
Council of State in 1875, Itagaki organized his followers
and other
democratic proponents into the nationwide Aikokusha
(Society of
Patriots) to push for representative government in 1878.
In 1881,
in an action for which he is best known, Itagaki helped
found the
Jiyuto (Liberal Party), which favored French political
doctrines.
In 1882 Okuma established the Rikken Kaishinto
(Constitutional
Progressive Party), which called for a British-style
constitutional
democracy. In response, government bureaucrats, local
government
officials, and other conservatives established the Rikken
Teiseito
(Imperial Rule Party), a progovernment party, in 1882.
Numerous
political demonstrations followed, some of them violent,
resulting
in further government restrictions. The restrictions
hindered the
political parties and led to divisiveness within and among
them.
The Jiyuto, which had opposed the Kaishinto, was disbanded
in 1884,
and Okuma resigned as Kaishinto president.
Government leaders, long preoccupied with violent
threats to
stability and the serious leadership split over the Korean
affair,
generally agreed that constitutional government should
someday be
established. Kido had favored a constitutional form of
government
since before 1874, and several proposals that provided for
constitutional guarantees had been drafted. The oligarchy,
however,
while acknowledging the realities of political pressure,
was
determined to keep control. Thus, modest steps were taken.
The
Osaka Conference in 1875 resulted in the reorganization of
government with an independent judiciary and an appointed
Council
of Elders (Genronin) tasked with reviewing proposals for a
legislature. The emperor declared that "constitutional
government
shall be established in gradual stages" as he ordered the
Council
of Elders to draft a constitution. Three years later, the
Conference of Prefectural Governors established elected
prefectural
assemblies. Although limited in their authority, these
assemblies
represented a move in the direction of representative
government at
the national level, and by 1880 assemblies also had been
formed in
villages and towns. In 1880 delegates from twenty-four
prefectures
held a national convention to establish the Kokkai Kisei
Domei
(League for Establishing a National Assembly).
Although the government was not opposed to
parliamentary rule,
confronted with the drive for "people's rights," it
continued to
try to control the political situation. New laws in 1875
prohibited
press criticism of the government or discussion of
national laws.
The Public Assembly Law (1880) severely limited public
gatherings
by disallowing attendance by civil servants and requiring
police
permission for all meetings. Within the ruling circle,
however, and
despite the conservative approach of the leadership, Okuma
continued as a lone advocate of British-style government,
a
government with political parties and a cabinet organized
by the
majority party, answerable to the national assembly. He
called for
elections to be held by 1882 and for a national assembly
to be
convened by 1883; in doing so, he precipitated a political
crisis
that ended with an 1881 imperial rescript declaring the
establishment of a national assembly in 1890 and
dismissing Okuma.
Rejecting the British model, Iwakura and other
conservatives
borrowed heavily from the Prussian constitutional system.
One of
the Meiji oligarchy, Ito Hirobumi (1841-1909), a Choshu
native long
involved in government affairs, was charged with drafting
Japan's
constitution. He led a Constitutional Study Mission abroad
in 1882,
spending most of his time in Germany. He rejected the
United States
Constitution as "too liberal" and the British system as
too
unwieldy and having a parliament with too much control
over the
monarchy; the French and Spanish models were rejected as
tending
toward despotism.
On It 's return, one of the first acts of the
government was to
establish new ranks for the nobility. Five hundred persons
from the
old court nobility, former daimyo, and samurai who
had
provided valuable service to the emperor were organized in
five
ranks: prince, marquis, count, viscount, and baron. Ito
was put in
charge of the new Bureau for Investigation of
Constitutional
Systems in 1884, and the Council of State was replaced in
1885 with
a cabinet headed by Ito as prime minister. The positions
of
chancellor, minister of the left, and minister of the
right, which
had existed since the seventh century as advisory
positions to the
emperor, were all abolished. In their place, the Privy
Council was
established in 1888 to evaluate the forthcoming
constitution and to
advise the emperor. To further strengthen the authority of
the
state, the Supreme War Council was established under the
leadership
of Yamagata Aritomo (1838-1922), a Choshu native who has
been
credited with the founding of the modern Japanese army and
was to
become the first constitutional prime minister. The
Supreme War
Council developed a German-style general staff system with
a chief
of staff who had direct access to the emperor and who
could operate
independently of the army minister and civilian officials.
When finally granted by the emperor as a sign of his
sharing
his authority and giving rights and liberties to his
subjects, the
1889 Constitution of the Empire of Japan (the Meiji
Constitution)
provided for the Imperial Diet (Teikoku Gikai), composed
of a
popularly elected House of Representatives with a very
limited
franchise of male citizens who paid ¥15 (for value of the
yen--see Glossary)
in national taxes, about 1 percent of the
population; the
House of Peers, composed of nobility and imperial
appointees; and
a cabinet responsible to the emperor and independent of
the
legislature. The Diet could approve government legislation
and
initiate laws, make representations to the government, and
submit
petitions to the emperor. Nevertheless, in spite of these
institutional changes, sovereignty still resided in the
emperor on
the basis of his divine ancestry. The new constitution
specified a
form of government that was still authoritarian in
character, with
the emperor holding the ultimate power and only minimal
concessions
made to popular rights and parliamentary mechanisms. Party
participation was recognized as part of the political
process. The
Meiji Constitution was to last as the fundamental law
until 1947.
The first national election was held in 1890, and 300
members
were elected to the House of Representatives. The Jiyuto
and
Kaishinto parties had been revived in anticipation of the
election
and together won more than half of the seats. The House of
Representatives soon became the arena for disputes between
the
politicians and the government bureaucracy over large
issues, such
as the budget, the ambiguity of the constitution on the
Diet's
authority, and the desire of the Diet to interpret the
"will of the
emperor" versus the oligarchy's position that the cabinet
and
administration should "transcend" all conflicting
political forces.
The main leverage the Diet had was in its approval or
disapproval
of the budget, and it successfully wielded its authority
henceforth.
In the early years of constitutional government, the
strengths
and weaknesses of the Meiji Constitution were revealed. A
small
clique of Satsuma and Choshu elite continued to rule
Japan,
becoming institutionalized as an extraconstitutional body
of
genro (elder statesmen). Collectively, the
genro made
decisions reserved for the emperor, and the genro,
not the
emperor, controlled the government politically. Throughout
the
period, however, political problems were usually solved
through
compromise, and political parties gradually increased
their power
over the government and held an ever larger role in the
political
process as a result.
Between 1891 and 1895, Ito served as prime minister
with a
cabinet composed mostly of genro who wanted to
establish a
government party to control the House of Representatives.
Although
not fully realized, the trend toward party politics was
well
established.
Data as of January 1994
|
