The Radical Meiji Constitution - Essay Example

The radical Meiji Constitution The Meiji constitution was used in Japan from November 29, 1890 until May 2, 1947. The constitution was promulgated on November 29 1890 by Emperor Meiji. The drafting of the constitution provided a break from past as it was expected to bring to an end the feudal past characterised by powerful regional families, military rule and wars. During this period, the emperor did not have much power but played a ceremonial role. The Tokugawa period was the last feudal period which was brought to an end by the Meiji restoration. It is Emperor Meiji who oversaw the creation of a new constitution which took after his name. On one hand, the Meiji constitution brought enormous changes thus branded as radical while at the same time it was criticised as being too conservative for shunning Anglo-American liberalist ideologies. The constitution was largely drawn from the indigenous Japanese legal system in bid to protect the country’s history and culture. Nonetheless, there is various ways which the constitution qualifies as radical. This paper thus draws support from a number of sources to proof that the Meiji constitution was radical in its own way. The constitution was drafted by Hirobumi Ito, Kwashi Inoue (1843-1895), Miyoji Ito (1857-1934) and Kentaro Kaneko (1853- 1942). They were assisted or advised by Herman Roesler and Albert Mosse (Starr, 1988). The constitution was largely based on the common Japanese ideology of Kokutai that placed strategic national development above all else and hence placed a premium upon pragmatic policy making. As such, the main idea was to promote social economic development in Japan with promotion of democracy coming later (Austin, 2009). The constitution was thus set to provide the state institutions through which the Meiji elite class was to undertake Kokutai. The formulation of the constitution, apart from fulfilling the Kokutai, was informed by economic models and theories largely borrowed from other countries. Although there were calls for an Anglo-American inspired constitution in Japan, the Meiji constitution took a Prussian model. The American constitution was dismissed as being too liberal and the British one was dismissed as being unwieldy and an excessively strong parliament that wielded power over the monarchy. One of the drafters, Ito Kenako, was publicly known to be an admirer of the conservative German ruler Otto von Bismarck. He thus led to expedition abroad to learn about constitution making but much of the time was spent in Germany. Through the encounter with Bismarck, Ito learnt that the international law was somehow irrelevant to the Japanese cause and thus Bismarck impressed on Ito that the Japanese constitution should be founded on strong institutions and guaranteed autonomy (Kazuhiro, 2007).Precautions were taken to ensure that the contents of the constitution were not leaked to the public by the drafters or members of the Privy Council who were mandated to debate and approve it. Furthermore, prior to the promulgation ceremony, the public and the media were waned not to criticize it (Starr 1988). This call for strict secrecy originated from the constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1787 which restricted public debate of the constitution. The Meiji constitution triggered a number of reforms politically, socially, cultural and economically hence the tag radical. Dean (2002) nonetheless notes that the constitution has been criticised by a number of scholars as having been conservative. This is based on the fact that majority of the top leadership which included the nobility and other senior members of government organs were retained in power. The author however, notes that by the standards of Japan and given the prevailing circumstances, the constitution had its brighter side especially in enabling economic growth. The Tokugawa clan dominated other daimyos and hence formulated laws that were replicated by the other daimyos. To ensure allegiance to the Tokugawa leadership, the daimyos were allowed lavish lifestyles to the chagrin of the commoners. The Meiji constitution brought an end to the era of daimyos by uniting them under one nation and under a sovereign leadership. The Meiji constitution formed the Imperial Diet that comprised of the lower and upper house provided for in article 33 of chapter 3 of the Meiji constitution. This house of peers was formed by an imperial decree that merged the former court nobility known as Kuge and the daimyos into a single unit called kazoku. During the Tokugawa period, there were over 200 daimyo units which acted as federal states. The unitarist approach engraved in the constitution was a radical move to promote nationalism in the country under a written constitution. The highlight of Meiji radicalism is a break from the Tokugawa rule. The new rule engraved in the constitution was a reaction for the failure of the Tokugawa rule in creating a modern state with the right political and institutions capable of ensuring the sovereignty of the country and its rapid industrialization. Therefore, the Meiji constitution was not radical in the sense that in brought in new political or social ideologies but rather aimed at maintaining national sovereignty in the face of foreign intrusion. Ideally, the institutions were aimed at enabling the government increase its capacity to generate revenue both form internal and foreign operations. This is because the Meiji era inherited a government from the Tokugawa rule that was basically broke. Therefore, to ensure that this goal was achieved, senior members of the Meiji government had sound educational backgrounds. They were to be guided by the motto: revere the emperor, work against the Shogun and all other officials who were lazy and betrayed their trust (corrupt); select people of talent for important posts-wherever they come from (Austin 2009). The definition of radicalism in one way or another captures the provisions of the Meiji constitution. However, a number of authors acknowledge that radicalism is highly contextual. One way that describes radicalism is a move to break away from the past (McLaughlin). Huntingdon says “radicalism – like conservatism – lacks a substantive ideal of its own” while Pappas (p1119) says that “radicalism is any movement or political party that explicitly aims at the legal, customarily non-violent subversion of an existing institutional framework to replace it with a new, allegedly better one.” therefore, the fact the new constitution was aimed at making Japan a more global player economically and militarily makes the constitution radical in its worn right. Furthermore, the constitution making process was informed by foreign constitutions. Although the British, American, French, and Spanish constitutional models were not used, they guided the drafters on what to look for in an acceptable constitution relevant to the Japanese case. This was a break from the past where the previous constitution was formulated with the sole intentions of protecting the monarchy. Another highlight of radicalism is its opposition to the views of the conservative who seek to retain the status quo. In the Meiji era, after the promulgation of the Meiji constitution, the conservatives who included allies of the imperial household, the Meiji Oligarchy, landowners and the Original Zaibatsu were opposed to some provisions of the constitution. For instance, the conservatives were opposed to a more liberal Anglo-American constitution in the fear that they would lose their place in government. Nonetheless, the establishment of the kazoku was a radical in the sense that it was a new entity. The kazoku comprised of former members of the daimyo, samurai and former noble member of the court. Under the Meiji constitution, members of the kazoku were ordered into five ranks: Prince or Duke (kōshaku), Marquis (kōshaku), Earl or Count (hakushaku), Viscount (shishaku) and Baron (danshaku) (Austin 2009). Each of these ranks was served with a unique role to play in government. Radicalism changes with time and as society changes, the meaning of radicalism itself changes. This means that radicalism is a push for constant change with the goal of equating the ideals to reality to meet the current societal needs. During the Meiji era, there were persons who pushed for change but with time, such change would require to be replaced with more advanced change to meet current societal needs. In the case of Japan, this is shown by the composition of the radicals and the conservatives. In one era, a group of individuals would be viewed to have radical ideas but after some time would be labeled as conservative. In the militarist era after the seizure of Manchuria for instance, the conservatives were imperial households, military leaders, the economic bureaucracy, and the new zaibatsu. A new crop of thinkers always presented news ideas to government to fit with changing times. All thinkers that called for a status quo were viewed as conservatives while those who called for new ideas as radical (McNelly, 2000). The Meiji constitution was both radical and conservative. Dean writes that “ although, with benefit of hindsight, it easy to criticize the Meiji constitution as conservative, essentially undemocratic and mere window dressing, it was remarkable, even revolutionary, document” (p. 69). It was conservative in the sense that it sought to preserve the monarch’s political power through the constitution. For instance, the fist article read “The Empire of Japan shall be reigned over and governed by a line of Emperors unbroken for ages eternal” These words sought to indicate that the sovereignty of Japan was not held by the people but rather by the emperor. Furthermore, the supreme law of the empire was not the constitution but the emperor himself. In essence, the ministry of justice was merely a branch of the executive and had no independence to carry out its functions. Nonetheless, the constitution was the beginning of an evolutionary process that would forever transform Japan. The constitution, as intended by Ito, in aligning the Meiji constitution to the ideals of popularized by Bismacrk “was a government in which neither the parliament nor the king actually exercises real authority over the Imperial bureaucracy” (Kataoka, 1991, p. 21). However, the emperor of in Japan had the final say almost in all matters as his advisory council rarely contradicted his word. The constitution marked the foundation for other constitutional documents. Dean cites another writer to say that ....the Meiji constitution provided very substantial degree of political innovation and at the same time installed a type of government calculated to maximise national unity, stability, and a strong political leadership. There are very impressive accomplishments in the annals of political development that should not be discounted lightly (Dean p. 69). Dean views the radicalism of the constitution not in its ideas from a philosophical standpoint but rather in terms of achievement economically. However, the constitution and the ruling class create and maintained an economically enabling environment that allowed the country to progress ahead and be a recognised economic powerhouse by the run of the 20th century. The Meiji constitution established the religious freedom which was not recognised in previous regimes. This principle was established based on the idea of separation of religion from government (Abe 1970). The constitution requires that the relationship between a chief abbot and the religious teachers, mainly Buddhism, be considered an intramural matter that was unrelated to the government. However, due to the ambiguity in the wording that characterised this constitution, the interpretation of such provision by the judicial system was problematic. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court in the empire viewed that it was the function of the government to hire and fire teachers of religion through the chief abbots thus defining the action as a de-facto government recognised administrative action. A chief abbot thus had the power to dismiss a teacher but a teacher was not allowed to contest such an action. Therefore, the government distorted the line between religion and government and at the same time gave arbitrary power to individuals to wield over individuals. However, the basic idea behind the move by the government was to streamline governance in matters of education where religion was part of religion. From the above discussion, it is appropriate to say that Japan as a country is what it is today partly due to the progresses made by the Meiji constitution. The desire to break from the past and ensure peace and economic development have over the years catapulted the country to be one of the most developed in the world and one of the most peaceful and democratic. Such achievements would not have been possible were it not for the Meiji constitution that was radical enough to break from the feudal system. References Abe, Y. (1970). Religious freedom under the Meiji constitution. Contemporary Religions in Japan 11(3), 223-296 Austin, I. (2009). Common Foundations of American and East Asian Modernisation: From Alexander Hamilton to Junichero Koizumi. New York: Select Publishing. Dean, Dean, M. (2002). Japanese legal system. 2nd ed. London: Routledge. Huntingdon, S. (1957). ‘Conservatism as an ideology’, The American Political Science Review, 51:2, 457-478 Kataoka, T. (1991). The Price of a Constitution: The Origin of Japan’s Postwar Politics. New York: Crane Russak. Kazuhiro, T. (2008). The Meiji Constitution: The Japanese Experience of the West and the Shaping of the Modern State. Translated by David Noble. International House of Japan, Tokyo, 2007. McLaughlin, P. (2012). Radicalism: A Philosophical Study. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. McNelly, T. (2000). The Origins of Japan’s Democratic Constitution. Chicago; University Press of America. Pappas, T. (2008). Political leadership and the emergence of radical mass movements in democracy’, Comparative Political Studies 42 , 1119-1138 Starr, J. (1988). The United States Constitution: Its Birth, Growth, and Influence in Asia Read More