Meiji period
The denotes the 45-year reign of the
Meiji Emperor, running from
8 September 1868 (in the
Gregorian calendar,
23 October 1868) to
30 July 1912. During this time,
Japan started its
modernization and rose to world power status.
After the death of the
Meiji Emperor in
1912, the
Taisho Emperor took the throne, thus beginning the
Taisho Period.
On
February 3,
1867, fifteen-year old Mutsuhito succeeded his father,
Emperor Komei and a new
era of Meiji, meaning "enlightened rule," was proclaimed. The
Meiji Restoration of
1868 ended the 265-year-old feudalistic
Tokugawa shogunate.
The first reform was the promulgation of the
Five Charter Oath in 1868, a general statement of the aims of the
Meiji leaders to boost morale and win financial support for the
new government. Its five provisions consisted of #establishment of deliberative assemblies#involvement of all classes in carrying out state affairs#freedom of social and occupational mobility#replacement of "evil customs" with the "just laws of nature" and #an international search for knowledge to strengthen the foundations of imperial rule. Implicit in the Charter Oath was an end to exclusive political rule by the
bakufu and a move toward more democratic participation in government. To implement the Charter Oath, an eleven-article constitution was drawn up. Besides providing for a new Council of State, legislative bodies, and systems of ranks for nobles and officials, it limited office tenure to four years, allowed public balloting, provided for a new taxation system, and ordered new local administrative rules.
The Meiji government assured the foreign powers that it would follow the old treaties negotiated by the bakufu and announced that it would act in accordance with international law. Mutsuhito, who was to reign until 1912, selected a new reign titleâ€"Meiji, or Enlightened Ruleâ€"to mark the beginning of a new era in Japanese history. To further dramatize the new order, the capital was relocated from
Kyoto, where it had been situated since
794, to
Tokyo (Eastern Capital), the new name for
Edo. In a move critical for the consolidation of the new regime, most
daimyo voluntarily surrendered their land and census records to the emperor in the
Abolition of the Han system, symbolizing that the land and people were under the emperor's jurisdiction. Confirmed in their hereditary positions, the
daimyo became governors, and the central government assumed their administrative expenses and paid
samurai stipends. The han were replaced with
prefectures in
1871, and authority continued to flow to the national government. Officials from the favored former han, such as
Satsuma,
Choshu,
Tosa, and
Hizen, staffed the new ministries. Formerly out-of-favor court nobles and lower-ranking but more radical samurai replaced bakufu appointees, daimyo, and old court nobles as a new ruling class appeared.
Inasmuch as the Meiji Restoration had sought to return the emperor to a preeminent position, efforts were made to establish a
Shinto-oriented state much like the state of 1,000 years earlier. Since Shinto and Buddhism had molded into a
syncretic belief in the last one-thousand years, a new
State Shinto had to be constructed for the purpose. The
Office of Shinto Worship was established, ranking even above the Council of State in importance. The
kokutai ideas of the Mito school were embraced, and the divine ancestry of the
imperial house was emphasized. The government supported Shinto teachers, a small but important move. Although the Office of Shinto Worship was demoted in
1872, by
1877 the
Home Ministry controlled all Shinto shrines and certain Shinto sects were given state recognition. Shinto was released from Buddhist administration and its properties restored. Although Buddhism suffered from state sponsorship of Shinto, it had its own resurgence.
Christianity was also legalized, and Confucianism remained an important ethical doctrine. Increasingly, however, Japanese thinkers identified with Western ideology and methods.
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
Tosa leader who had resigned from the Council of State 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.
Between 1871 and 1873, a series of land and tax laws were enacted as the basis for modern fiscal policy. Private ownership was legalized, deeds were issued, and lands were assessed at fair market value with taxes paid in cash rather than in kind as in pre-Meiji days and at slightly lower rates.
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 Shigenobu 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 pro-government 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 divisions 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. The
Choshu leader
Kido Takayoshi had favored a constitutional form of government since before
1874, and several proposals 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.
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
7th 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 armyminister 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 were over 25 years of age and paid 15 yen in national taxes, about 1 % of the population, and 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.
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.
On its 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.
It was at this time that the
Ee ja nai ka movement, a spontaneous outbreak of ecstatic behaviour, took place.
In
1885, the intellectual
Yukichi Fukuzawa wrote the influential essay
Leaving Asia, arguing that Japan should orient itself at the "civilized countries of the West", leaving behind the "hopelessly backward" Asian neighbors, namely
Korea and
China. This essay certainly contributed to the economic and technological rise of Japan in the Meiji period but it may also have laid the foundations for later Japanese
colonialism in the region.
Considering that the economic structure and production of the country was roughly equivalent to
Elizabethan era England, becoming a world power in such a short time was remarkable progress. There were at least two reasons for the speed of Japan's modernization: the employment of over 3,000 foreign experts (called
o-yatoi gaikokujin or 'hired foreigners') in a variety of specialist fields such as teaching English, science, engineering, the army and navy etc.; and the dispatch of many Japanese students overseas to Europe and America, based on the fifth and last article of the
Charter Oath of
1868: 'Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to strengthen the foundations of Imperial rule.' This process of modernization was closely monitored and heavily subsidized by the Meiji government, enhancing the power of the great
zaibatsu firms such as
Mitsui and
Mitsubishi.
Hand in hand, the zaibatsu and government guided the nation, always borrowing technology from the West. Japan gradually took control of much of Asia's market for manufactured goods, beginning with textiles. The economic structure became very mercantilistic, importing raw materials and exporting finished products—a reflection of Japan's relative poverty in raw materials.
Japan emerged from the Tokugawa-Meiji transition as the first Asian industrialized nation. Domestic commercial activities and limited foreign trade had met the demands for material culture in the Tokugawa period, but the modernized Meiji era had radically different requirements. From the onset, the Meiji rulers embraced the concept of a market economy and adopted British and North American forms of free enterprise capitalism. The private sector—in a nation blessed with an abundance of aggressive entrepreneurs—welcomed such change.
Economic reforms included a unified modern currency based on the yen, banking, commercial and tax laws, stock exchanges, and a communications network. Establishment of a modern institutional framework conducive to an advanced capitalist economy took time but was completed by the
1890s. By this time, the government had largely relinquished direct control of the modernization process, primarily for budgetary reasons.
Many of the former daimyo, whose pensions had been paid in a lump sum, benefited greatly through investments they made in emerging industries. Those who had been informally involved in foreign trade before the Meiji Restoration also flourished. Old
bakufu-serving firms that clung to their traditional ways failed in the new business environment.
The government was initially involved in economic modernization, providing a number of "model factories" to facilitate the transition to the modern period. After the first twenty years of the Meiji period, the industrial economy expanded rapidly until about
1920 with inputs of advanced Western technology and large private investments. Stimulated by wars and through cautious economic planning, Japan emerged from
World War I as a major industrial nation.
Undeterred by opposition, the Meiji leaders continued to modernize the nation through government-sponsored telegraph cable links to all major Japanese cities and the Asian mainland and construction of railroads, shipyards, munitions factories, mines, textile manufacturing facilities, factories, and experimental agriculture stations. Much concerned about national security, the leaders made significant efforts at military modernization, which included establishing a small standing army, a large reserve system, and compulsory militia service for all men. Foreign military systems were studied, foreign advisers were brought in, and Japanese cadets sent abroad to European and United States military and naval schools.
Following her defeat of
China in
Korea in the
Sino-Japanese War (
1894–
1895), Japan broke through as an international power with a victory against
Russia in
Manchuria (north-eastern China) in the
Russo-Japanese War of
1904–
1905. Allied with
Britain since the
Anglo-Japanese Alliance signed in London on
January 30,
1902, Japan joined the Allies in
World War I, seizing German-held territory in China and the Pacific in the process, but otherwise remained largely out of the conflict.
After the war, a weakened
Europe left a greater share in international markets to the U.S. and
Japan, which emerged greatly strengthened. Japanese competition made great inroads into hitherto European-dominated markets in
Asia, not only in
China, but even in European colonies like
India and
Indonesia, reflecting the development of the Meiji era.
A key foreign observer of the remarkable and rapid changes in
Japanese society in this period was
Ernest Satow, resident in Japan
1862–
83 and
1895–
1900.
*
Meiji Restoration*
Government of Meiji Japan*
Meiji oligarchy*
Foreign relations of Meiji Japan*
Japanese nationalism*
Empire of Japan*
List of political figures of Meiji Japan*
Rurouni Kenshin, a historical
manga set in the Meiji period
*Noboru Koyama:
Japanese Students at Cambridge University in the Meiji Era â€" Pioneers for the Modernization of Japan. (transl. by Ian Ruxton [
1])
Lulu Press, 2004 ISBN 1411612566
