Working of Representative Government—Stormy Proceedings in Diet—Legal
and Judicial Reform—Political Rowdyism—Fusion of Classes.
The simultaneous creation in Japan of a Parliament and a Constitution
offers a contrast to the sequence of political history elsewhere. There
is no essential connection between the two. Some countries have enjoyed
parliamentary rights of various kinds before being endowed with
Constitutions. In others, again, the order of precedence has been
reversed. The fact that in Japan the two came together may be regarded
as the natural outcome of the decision of the new Government formed at
the Restoration to reorganize the general administration of the country
on Western lines. The establishment of parliamentary institutions of
some kind was the fixed idea of all reformers. The working of this
leading idea may be traced throughout the whole course of administrative
reconstruction. Reference to it was made in the Imperial Oath of
1869—spoken of by Japanese, when writing in English, as the “Charter
Oath of the nation.” It is seen in the introduction of a deliberative
element into the otherwise archaic form given to the new administration;
in the subsequent creation of a Senate (_Genrō-in_); in the creation of
prefectural assemblies in 1880; in the definite promise of a Parliament,
to be accompanied by a Constitution, in 1881; in the creation in 1890 of
smaller local assemblies on the same representative basis as the
prefectural assemblies; and, finally, in the promulgation in 1889 of the
Constitution which came into operation in the following year,
simultaneously with the Diet, signalizing the accomplishment of the
purpose in view from the first. That the Constitution, when promulgated,
was of a less liberal kind than that which had been originally intended,
and was still desired by advanced reformers, was due to the pressure of
reactionary influences already described. This, as well as the short
space of years covered by the transition from feudalism to
constitutional government, of the working of which the nation had no
experience, save what little had been acquired in connection with the
revision of local government, accounts to a large extent for the stormy
character which marked the proceedings of the Diet for several years
after it came into existence.
The final establishment of representative government was accompanied in
the same year by evidence of further substantial progress in the
direction of legal and judicial reform. The Code of Civil Procedure and
the Commercial Code were completed. Of these, the first came into
operation immediately; the latter not until eight years later, by which
time it had undergone careful revision. The law of the organization of
Judicial Courts was also promulgated, and the Criminal Code and the Code
of Criminal Procedure, which had been in force since 1882, appeared in
new and revised forms. In the preparation of all these laws, as in the
framing of the Constitution and other subsidiary measures, much
assistance was rendered by foreign jurists, amongst whom the names of
Mr. (now Sir Francis) Piggott and the late Mr. Feodor Satow may be
mentioned.
The interval of nearly two years which elapsed between the promulgation
of the Constitution and its coming into operation was a period of
increased political agitation and unrest. On the very morning of the
promulgation of the Constitution the Minister of Education, Viscount
Mōri, whose pro-foreign tendencies had caused much irritation in
reactionary circles, was murdered by a Shintō priest in the presence of
his guards as he was stepping into his carriage to proceed to the
Palace. It was to his initiative that the addition of the English
language to the curriculum of elementary schools had been due. It was
reported at the time that his assassination was the result of some real,
or fancied, slight on the part of the deceased statesman when paying an
official visit of inspection to the national shrines at Isé. What truth
there was in this rumour will probably never be known.
The resumption at this time of negotiations for the revision of the
treaties with foreign Powers led to further agitation also on this
subject. When it became known that in the new proposals put forward by
the Japanese Government the appointment of foreign judges was
contemplated, popular indignation at what was regarded as a slight to
the dignity of Japan found vent in an attempt in the autumn of the same
year on the life of the new Minister for Foreign Affairs, Count
(afterwards Marquis) Ōkuma. Though escaping with his life, he was so
severely injured by the explosion of a bomb thrown by a political
fanatic, a native of his own province of Hizen, that he was forced to
resign. Nor did the opening of the first session of the Diet have any
calming effect on the general unrest which prevailed. So serious,
indeed, was the recrudescence of anti-foreign feeling that in the spring
of 1891 the late Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, who, as Crown Prince, was
on a visit to Japan, had a narrow escape from injury at the hands of a
policeman on duty, who attacked him with a sword. If, however, the state
of things both on the eve of the opening of the Diet, and after
parliamentary institutions were in full operation, wore a disquieting
aspect, the anxieties of the Government were lessened by the want of
unity among the various political factions in opposition. The
dissolution of the General Agreement Union, one of whose prominent
leaders, Count Gotō, rejoined the Government, showed that internal
dissensions were stronger than the motives which brought its adherents
together, and its example was followed by other equally ephemeral
associations. In the reconstruction of political parties which
subsequently took place the _Jiyūtō_ was revived under the leadership of
Count Itagaki, its numbers being reduced to very small dimensions; the
General Agreement Union reappeared in the form of an organized political
party, a character it had not possessed before, and under the changed
name of the _Daidō_ Club; while the _Kaishintō_ which had narrowly
escaped dissolution, retained its original constitution, but without its
most prominent leaders.
Meanwhile the first elections for the Diet had taken place in the summer
of 1890. The result was in accordance with what might have been
anticipated in view of the confusion of ideas then existing in the
political world, and the local feeling which stood in the way of
combined action. The members who were returned to the first Parliament
owed allegiance to ten different political groups, the most numerous of
all being the free lances, who belonged to no party and were grouped
together under the name of Independents. It was not, therefore, an
organized nor, in any sense, a united Opposition which confronted
Ministers in the Diet; but, much as they might differ among themselves
on questions of the day, the various groups were capable of forming
temporary alliances, which, owing to the uncertainty resulting from the
large number of independent members, caused no little embarrassment to
the “Two-Clan” Government which had called them into parliamentary life.
The general tone of the first House of Representatives was unmistakably
democratic.
Buckle, in his _History of Civilization_, makes some remarks on the
social conditions prevailing in France on the eve of the French
Revolution which are applicable to those existing in Japan at the time
of which we are speaking. In the latter country, however, these
conditions were the result, not the forerunner, of revolution. “As
long,” he says, “as the different classes confined themselves to
pursuits peculiar to their own sphere they were encouraged to preserve
their separate habits; and the subordination or, as it were, the
hierarchy of society was easily maintained. But when the members of the
various orders met in the same place with the same object, they became
knit together by a new sympathy. The highest and most durable of all
pleasures, the pleasure caused by the perception of fresh truths, was
now a link which banded together those social elements that were
formerly wrapped up in the pride of their own isolation.” And he goes on
to point out how the new eagerness for the study of science at this time
in France stimulated democratic feeling.
In Japan the separation of pursuits, to which Buckle alludes, had been a
striking feature of pre-Restoration days. Not only were there the class
distinctions, rigidly maintained, between the _samurai_, the farmer, the
artizan and the merchant; but two of these classes, those of the
merchants and artizans, were split up into guilds of an exclusive
character. The towns, moreover, like those of mediæval Europe, were
divided into quarters inhabited by those following the same trade, or
handicraft. The fusion of classes had begun even before the Restoration.
The first impulse in this direction had arisen out of the economic
situation which existed towards the close of the Tokugawa
administration. The distress of the farmer, and the poverty of the
_samurai_, caused breaches in the barriers separating class from class,
and notably in those which divided the two classes mentioned from the
rest of the nation. These were, however, only premonitory symptoms. The
real fusion of classes came after the Restoration, when the abolition of
feudalism put an end to the privileged position of the _samurai_,
diminishing at the same time, though not wholly extinguishing, class
prejudice. The various reforms which followed: the establishment of
schools and colleges which brought education within the reach of
everyone; the measures affecting land tenure and taxation; the
codification of laws; and conscription—to name only a few—all tended to
promote uniformity; the final factor in the process being the creation
of parliamentary institutions, which supplied a meeting-ground for all
sections of the nation, and a common field of interest for all.
An increase of democratic feeling was thus a logical consequence of the
policy of reform on Western lines, on which the Government had embarked
after the Restoration. When the Monarch and his Ministers proclaimed
with one voice their intention to associate the people in the work of
government, when local autonomy was by degrees introduced, when a
Constitution was in operation, and a Parliament in session, it would
have been strange indeed if the general stream of popular tendencies had
not set in the direction of democratic ideas. Nor were such tendencies
incompatible with Imperialist sentiment, the feeling that had counted
for so much in the overthrow of the previous _régime_. For this latter
feeling was simply a habit of mind, a passive tradition, a principle
which, so far as politics were concerned, had rarely been translated
into practice, though it formed the groundwork for a more active, if
somewhat artificial, loyalty, and an exaggerated patriotism.
With the coming into force of the Constitution the ancient monarchy
entered upon a new phase in its existence. During the long period of
Tokugawa ascendancy the Crown had slumbered, as before, in complete
security, its repose guarded by the Shōgunate. Removed from all contact
with outside influences, it was free from all possibility of collision
with the people. Although after the Restoration the severity of its
seclusion was relaxed, the personality of the Monarch made little or no
impression beyond the select inner circle of statesmen who constituted
the governing oligarchy. The representative institutions now
established, while limiting Imperial prerogatives, enabled the Sovereign
to come more prominently into view, and to be brought into direct
association with his people within the forms prescribed by the
Constitution.