ON THIS DAY ·
Meiji Constitution
11 Feb 1889 — In the new palace the emperor hands the constitution to the prime minister as a gift from the throne. The emperor remains sovereign; an elected lower house shares in lawmaking, chosen in 1890 by about 1% of the population.
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The moment in context
Japan’s builders were a small, stable group who learned systematically from abroad, and that combination explains much of their success. The Iwakura Mission of 1871–73 took about half the government’s leaders, including Ōkubo Toshimichi, Kido Takayoshi and the young Itō Hirobumi, on a tour of America and Europe. It failed to revise the treaties and returned convinced that Japan needed factories, schools and laws before it could demand equality. The government employed foreign experts, sent students abroad and copied selectively: a navy on British lines, an army on French and later German lines, and schools on American and French models. After Ōkubo was assassinated in 1878, power passed to a circle later called the genrō, the elder statesmen, an unelected inner council something like a permanent board of senior partners, among them Itō, Yamagata Aritomo and Matsukata. They took turns as prime minister for thirty years, which gave the state a continuity of purpose that few governments in transition enjoy.
From Meiji Constitution and modernisation, chapter 5 of Remaking the State: Meiji Japan 1600–1912 and Post-Soviet Russia 1964–2000 (1889).
The place: Meiji Constitution — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — The Iwakura Mission taught that strength must come first. The mission set out in 1871 to begin revising the unequal treaties and was told politely that Japan’s laws and institutions were not yet acceptable…
- The turn — The constitution, 11 February 1889. The promulgation is the hinge because it fixed the rules of Japanese politics for more than half a century, until 1947. It made Japan the first…
- What it changed — Treaty revision became possible. In July 1894 Britain signed a treaty agreeing to end extraterritoriality from 1899, and the other powers followed. The new constitution, cabinet…
Then ask the room: Was the Meiji constitution a step towards democracy or a device to prevent it? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
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