Zusammenfassung der Ressource
WESTERNISATION OF
JAPAN 1868-1920
POLITICS
- 1889
constitution
- to prove to the west that it deserved respect and equal
treatment within the community of modern nations
- Ito Hirobumi played a key role in shaping the constitution. During his visit to Europe, in 1882 he had been
impressed by the recently put in place constitution in Germany and had discussed its qualities with the
German Chancellor, Bismarck.
- The Emperor developed the constitution with Ito which was finally announced in 1889 and took effect the following year
- Western Influence
- Iwakura had spent the summer of 1881 working out a set of constitutional guidelines that would permit the oligarchs to retain control
over the impending experiment with representative government. His thoughts focused on Prussia, which, among the advanced Western
nations, he reasoned , served as the most appropriate constitutional model. Having agreed upon a constitutional outline, the oligarchs
entrusted Ito with drafting the specific document, and in March 1882 he departed for Europe to consult with the West's foremost legal
scholars.
- The organizational structure of the Diet reflected both Prussian and British influences, most
notably in the inclusion of the House of Peers (which resembled the Prussian Herrenhaus and
the British House of Lords), and in the formal Speech from the Throne delivered by the Emperor
on Opening Day. The second chapter of the constitution, detailing the rights of citizens, bore a
resemblance to similar articles in both European and North American constitutions of the day.
- Features of Constitution
- it was gift from the emperor
to his people. The Emperor's
rule was seen as eternal and
sacred
- The Emperor had the right to
declare wasr, make peace
and clnclude treaties and
could adjorn the diet
- The diet was made up of 2 houses; upper
and lower
- The house of peers, made up of nobles and men nominated by the
Emperor, could veto legislation from the lower house (the House of
Representatives)
- The House of Representatives was elected by well-to-do property
owners, all male, and adding up to about half a million voters in a
population of nearly forty million. It met for around three months of
the year
- THE DIET
- could reject the
governments budget
proposals. If this
happened the previous
year's budget was
continued to maintain
the governments work.
- The population was assured that they had rights
that included freedom of speech, of writing, of
association and religion; however, those rightswere
qualified by references to people's duties as
subjects, the need for peace and order, and the
threat of nationl emergencies.
- Rise of political parties
- By the twentieth century the growth of towns and industry
promoted the emergence of more left-wing groups, including
socialists and anarchists. Japan's first Socialist Party was founded in
1906, 5 years after a Social Democrat Party had been set up. Both
were promptly banned by the police.
- Radical activities were harshly treated,
with many left-wingers imprisoned and
their writings censored
- In 1918, for the first time, a commoner,
not a member of the House of Peers,
became prime minister. Left-wingers and
trade unionists found that the government
was no longer quite as fiercely hostile to
them.
- Civil Code
- There was also disagreement as to whether the code should be based on the French or the English
system of law. It was heavily influenced by the first draft of the German Civil Code and the French
Civil Code. The code is divided into five books.
- The Civil Code of Japan was created in 1896. The
code was the result of various movements for
modernization following the Meiji Restoration of
1868
- Japanese Power
- Navy
- The Japanese Navy was the third largest navy in the world by
1920, behind the Royal Navy and the United States Navy
- For more than 200 years, beginning in the
1640s, the Japanese policy of seclusion
("sakoku") forbade contacts with the outside
world and prohibited the construction of
ocean-going ships on pain of death.[