The Meiji Restoration (1868) and the 1889 Constitution

On By bfIn Imperial Decline in Japan and Korea, Uncategorized

Causes:

Long-term

    • Political conflict
      • 1600-1868: New government called Bakufu
        • Period is known as the Tokugawa Bakufu
        • Shogun – general in charge, Daimyo – regional lords, Samurai – kept Daimyo in power
          • All discouraged change
          • Samurai culture did not want modern warfare
          • Factionalism between lords
        • Still had shinokosho caste system = four divisions of society = determined by birth (Samurai = shi, Farmers = no, Artisans = ko, Merchants = sho)
          • No incentive for people to improve their lives
    • Economic
      • Mainly agriculture, military weak, no technology
      • No tax system – gov’t could not invest
      • Samurais costed the government 50% of expenditure
    • Social issues
      • Lack of social mobility, more tensions, between samurai + merchants → Merchants had wealth but Samurais offered nothing to society
        • Led to political fragmentation + failing hierarchy
      • No public school system
      • Women had no rights
    • Weakness of Japan
      • 1842: Opium war worries japan (China was annihilated) – humiliated and defeated
      • 1853: US Commodore Perry arrived = no tax system, no army, a lot of independance = Japan was forced to sign humiliating treaties
        • Increase in tensions
        • Samurai lost faith in the Shogun
        • Called to return emperor
      • Treaty of Kanghwa – embarrassing treaty, forces JP to open trade

Short-term

  • Choshu + Satsuma = were exposed to western ideas first (Dutch had modern)
    • 1866 = Choshu and Satsuma clans = launched military campaign against Tokugawa ⇒ lost ⇒ showed inadequacy of government
    • Collapse of Bakufu ⇒ Kyoto march in December 1867 = occupied the city = new emperor Meiji = abolish bakufu! (Jan 1868)
    • Revere the emperor, expel the barbarians
  • Iwakura Mission 1872, Hirobumi Mission 1882

Key events

Aims of the restoration

  • Reverse humiliation
  • Decisions made by genro (advisory group)
    • From satsuma and choshu

Timeline

  • 1868: Meiji Restoration starts = bakufu abolished
    • Charter oath – new goals of society
  • 1889: Meiji constitution
  • 1894: Abolish unequal treaties
  • 1894-5: Sino JP war, Japan gets TW and Korea

The Charter Oath

  • The Charter Oath (April 1868)
    • Increased public discussion
    • No class system = all involved in affairs of state
    • All allowed to have voice and your own job
    • No evil customs
    • More knowledge – study missions in Japan

Effects

  • Government
    • Centralised, bureaucratic gov’t that was accountable to the Emperor
    • Structure
      • 1868: new government and Council of State
      • 1871: foreign office, diff gov’t departments, public works
      • 1885: cabinet system – official roles for advisors (PM too)
      • 1887: new civil service exams
      • 1889: MEIJI constitution with parliament, elections
    • Abolished the class system and traditional hierarchy
    • Samurais = no more privileges – gave up power to work in government
    • Daimyos (Lords) = abolished and now worked with the government
    • Choshu and Satsuma = gave up their power and worked as the genro (advisors)
    • Constitution with parliament
    • Accountable to the emperor (cult)
  • Economic development
    • Highly developed transport + communications + railway + shipyard + consumer system
    • Growing industrial sector
    • Powerful army and navy (1871, army was created)
    • Taxes were now collected to Tokyo, 270 domains → 70 PREFECTURES
    • Meiji culture and society as a device to protect the interests of the small ruling group and in particular, the interests of industrial and financial capitalists, such as the huge zaibatsu conglomerates eg: Mitsubishi.
    • 1880 had to sell them to private system
  • Social development
    • Education
      • Mass schooling
      • 1872: 4 years education is compulsory – 90% of people in school by 1880
      • Educated population = no class restrictions
    • Everyone would have their own voice (Charter Oath)
      • Everyone could try for the cabinet (new system)
    • Study missions to learn from the West (Iwakura mission)
    • Diet = powerless, not all had power to vote (only 1%)  = not real democracy
    • 1880’s violent repression of political parties
    • Government ministers were appointed in the name of the emperor by the ruling oligarchs NOT by the majority party in the Japanese parliament (the Diet).
    • The 1898 Civil Laws placed the emperor at the head of the entire nation.
    • Husbands and wives were not equal. Wives were treated as children, and were not allowed to take legal action.
    • Women were banned from participating in political activities despite playing a key role in the developing industrial economy and textiles in particular.
  • Strength of the emperor
    • Abolition of Daimyo (regional lords)
      • Gave land to the Emperor in 1870
      • Daimyo were given handsome salaries and reappointed as governors = established = everything owed to emperor
    • Choshu and Satsuma gave up power to Emperor
    • Remaining ones were threatened with 1871 Imperial Japanese Army formed by Satsuma and Choshu
    • 1871: all domains (regions) were demolished
      • Emperors appointed the governors
  • Military development
    • Increased imperialist sentiment
    • 1880 conscript army was established
    • Samurai spirit – loyalties before to lords now transferred to emperor
    • Conscription law in 1873 – military service was mandatory ⇒ Military would later reign in a power struggle.
    • Samurai no longer had monopoly on military power
    • Imperial rescript of 1882 – unquestioning loyalty to the emperor
    • Success in sino-japanese war, russo-japanese war

The 1889 Constitution

Causes

Medium-term:

  • Meiji Restoration
    • Didn’t want full democracy, but also wanted a national assembly – disputes within the government
  • Constitutional Study mission
    • Led by Hirobumi → went abroad to look at different systems and implement in Japan
    • Believed US = too democratic, UK = too much power to parliament
    • Followed a Prussian system
    • Wanted to balance Emperor power with the assembly’s power

Key features/effects

  • Emperor
    • Source of emperor’s legitimacy is in the Constitution
    • Throne of lineal succession unbroken for eternity: Worship the emperor!
    • Ancestors grant the Meiji emperor power
    • Heart of the political system
    • Sovereignty = Emperor
  • Social
    • Rights
    • Not absolute
    • Had law, freedom of speech, writing, public meeting, association, publication, freedom of religion “Within limit”
      • 1925 granted freedom to vote but also Peace Preservation Law on the same day
  • Political
    • Bicameral parliament (the Diet)
    • Elected lower house (could be dissolved by the emperor)
    • Prime minister and cabinet = from emperor
    • Military was controlled by Emperor

Does the Meiji Restoration constitute a ‘Revolution’?

  • Aristocratic Revolution from the top – daimyo, right wing, Samurai revolution from above
  • Definition
    • Forcible overthrow of a government or social order
  • Historian Binton: stages of revolution
    • Starts because gov’t was inefficient, wealthy citizens feel restrained
    • Rich angry, Radical phase, Counter-revolutionary phase
  • Was it a revolution?
    • Swapped one ruling class for another (Shogun and Bakufu) with Emperor + samurai elite (Choshu + Satsuma)
    • Andrew Gordon: Yes, fundamental changes = revolution!
    • Historian WG Beasley: Compared to French or Russian, not in the classical sense  = nothing violent

Historiography

  • Orthodox view: British hailed the revolution → Japan would be more civilised
    • American press – imperial regime has come out of its chrysalis
    • Japan – Takeaki (fought new regime) ⇒ only the views of a few
    • Orthodox view also suggests that the cause of the restoration/revolution was the period of stagnation/weakness of Bakufu
    • Did not consider the diet, constitution increased power of the emperor
    • Andrew Gordon ⇒ HUGE CHANGE! Merit = revolution
  • Revisionist: Meiji was despotic rule ⇒ autocratic
    • E.g. Kaishu ⇒ critic of Restoration
    • Nostalgic of the past, loss of life due to wars ⇒ sad
    • Should be cooperation, not contest between Asia
    • Autocratic – emperor increased in power, had the final mandate, could start war and suspend democracy
    • Cullen’s revisionist perspective: Improved economy, military, faced West, NECESSARY repression
  • Post-revisionist
    • Meiji restoration was both
    • Democratic – increased rights for people, freedoms, chances to voice themselves
      • Created a great spirit that strengthened Japan, centralised power, and fought to the end
    • Yet at the same time = neglected aspects such as cooperation, and restraint, and patience, rather, advocated for violence
    • William Beasley: It was a restoration, not a revolution
      • It was a nationalist movement ⇒ emotional, populist campaign

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