The emperor is sacred and inviolable according to the constitution. His
majesty is the sole depository of sovereignty. Legislative power is
given to the Imperial Diet, but the theory of our constitution is that
the emperor himself exercises that power with the _concurrence_ of the
Diet. Other attributes of the emperor, such as the authority for
convoking or dissolving the Diet, sanctioning or vetoing laws,
promulgating the same, declaring war or making peace, ordering amnesty
or pardon, or conferring honours, such as titles of nobility, etc., are
much the same as those of the most of the Western monarchical countries.
One important feature which is without a parallel in the constitution of
almost all other countries (except perhaps some resemblance in the
Austrian constitution) is that in Japan the emperor has the power to
issue 'Urgency Ordinances' which have the same force as the law when
urgency requires such enactments in order to maintain public safety or
to avert public calamity, and it happens that the Diet is not sitting,
though such ordinances have to be submitted to the Diet and its
_ex-post-facto_ consent obtained in the next session, and they lose
their force in case such consent is withheld by the Diet. Another
important feature is that in Japan, unlike several constitutional
countries, all matters relating to the organisation of the army or navy
or the determination of the number of the standing army are entirely
within the sphere of the Imperial prerogative and beyond interference by
the diet though the latter has an indirect voice by reason of its
participation in matters of 'supply.'