Meiji Politics

 

Freedom and Popular Rights Movement　自由民権運動

Pre-Meiji politics of dissent

• Dissent is NOT seen as legitimate
• Tradition of peasant petitions
• Tradition of oie sōdo

Origin of modern politics

• Etō Shinpei and Itagaki Taisuke quit government in 1873 over Korea issue
• Issue manifesto calling for elected assembly
• Etō dies so Itagaki becomes leader of movement
• Samurai understanding of rights, honor, and duty to serve the state
  • Itagaki declared his movement was to "arouse in our people the spirit of enterprise . . . enable them to comprehend the duty of participation in the burdens of the empire."

Change after 1877

• Why 1877?
• the movement broadens beyond a narrow samurai bases -- growth is particularly important among wealthy farmers, former samurai dissidents
• THIS demographic transition is supported by wider dissemination of radical Western thought
• EXAMPLE of Chiba Takusaburō 千葉卓三郎(1852-1883)
  • Younger son of a low-raking samurai from Sendai by a concubine
  • Apprenticed to a teacher in a domain school in Sendai
  • Fought in Restoration wars -- but on the wrong side -- Sendai itself is punished
  • Studied medicine, then kokugaku, then Pure Land Buddhism
  • 1872 studies Russian Orthodox Christianity -- goes to jail
  • 1875 studies with anti-Christian Confucian scholar Yasui Sokken
  • 1876 studies with French Catholic priest, then mathematics with Methodist minster in Yokohama
  • Attempts business but fails
  • 1880 becomes schoolteacher in Itsukaichi and leader of “Learning and Debating Society”
  • 1881 begins drafting national constitution with villagers
    • They read major works like: Ueki Emori 1857–1892 Jiyū minken ron: "If people do not take this natural endowment it is both a great sin against nature and a great disgrace to themselves. Disgrace does not merely reside in taking things which should not be taken, but in not taking things which should be taken."
    • Drafted their own constitution
      • The Japanese people have the right to freedom and this is protected by law and should not be infringed
        • 日本 民ハ各自ノ権利自由ヲ達ス可シ、他ヨリ妨害ス可ラス可シ
      • There is a single law code for all of Japan, and all enjoy equal protection under the law, without special rights for an region, clan, or person
        • 凡ソ日 本国民ハ日本全国ニ於テ同一ノ法典ヲ準用シ、同一ノ保護ヲ受ク可シ、 地方及門閥若クハ一人一族ニ与フルノ特権アルコトナシ
      • In education, there should be freedom of choice in both fees and instructors, although parents should not be exempt from providing primary education
        • 子弟ノ教育ニ於テ其学科及教授は自由ナルモノトス、然レドモ子弟小学ノ教育ハ父兄 タル者ノ免ル可ラサル責任トス。」
      • Local self-government is based on local customs and traditions and that process should be free from interference and obstruction. Not even the national legislature shall violate the right to regional self-government.
        • 府県の自治ハ各地ノ風俗習例ニ 因ルモノナルカ故ニ必ラス之ニ干渉妨害ス可ラス其権域ハ国会ト雖モ之ヲ侵ス可ラサルモノトス

Transformation of Itagaki's group

• Originates as Aikoku kōtō (Patriotic Public Party), 愛国公党 and then the Risshisha 立志社 to
• in 1881 the Jiyūtō (or Liberal Party) 自由党
  • national coordinating groups for hundred of political groups demanding a constitution and elected assembly
  • BUT the party soon gets ahead of Itagaki
• EXAMPLES of radicalism
  • Fukushima incident in 1882-83
    • new taxes are levied to build a road
    • but the course of the road is opposed by local leaders -- they oppose the taxes for the road
    • initial their protest is peaceful -- a tax boycott -- these people are arrested and the movement hires lawyers
    • eventually, perhaps because of police sabotage, 11/1883 -- this turns violent, thousands of people are arrested
    • the leaders of the movement are moved by Western natural rights theory -- the issues are not new - taxes -- but the rhetoric is new ‘no taxation without representation” “people have a duty to oppose injustice”
    • according to police records “Gov. Mishima in trampling on the rights of man”
• RECESSION worsens violence
  • the rump leads the Kabasan incident of 9/1884
  • then the Chichibu incident of 11/1884 –Poor People's Party 困民党
  • in these incidents protesters attack landlords over land seizures
• DISSOLUTION OF PARTY Itagaki -- rather than be affiliated with this radicalism -- disbands the party in 1884

Movement within the Government

• Different visions of constitution
  • Supporters of national assembly as cornerstone of national power
    • Ōkuma Shigenobu
  • Supporters of national assembly as part of broad program of national reform
    • Kido Kōin
    • Itō Hirobumi
  • Supporters of assembly as means of bringing people closer to government
    • Yamagata Aritomo
  • Constitution as affirmation of Japanese/Confucian values
    • Motoda Eifū
    • Japan is ruled by one divinely descended Imperial line for eternity
    • the people of Japan revere their Emperor of the one unbroken line of decent and therefore cannot oppose him
    • the national teachings are benevolence, duty, propriety, loyalty, filial piety, uprightness and honesty -- neither sovereign nor people, nor laws, can depart from this
    • the emperor is sacred and inviolable
    • the emperor wields the power of government and education for the nation
    • the people possess the rights of freedom of person, residence and property -- these may not be circumscribed except by law
• Consensus develops around Prussian model of constitution
  • strong monarchy and executive with a weak assembly
• but Ōkuma and a small faction around him, favor a British style cabinet system -- executive responsible to the assembly
• 1881 Ōkuma quits government and founds Progressive Party Kaishintō 改進党

Government moves to preempt constitution movement

• Government declares that the Emperor will grant a constitution and convene a national assembly by 1890
• Supression of dissent
  • Libel Laws (1883)
    • libel is interpreted to mean criticizing the gov.
    • newspapers have two editors -- one who actual runs the paper and another to go to jail every time the newspaper is cited for libel
  • Police Surveillance and Peace Preservation Ordinance (1887)
    • No secret societies or meetings
    • Police can ban any mass meeting
    • Police can ban the distribution of "dangerous" literature
    • Gov. can expel anyone considered a danger to public peace from Tokyo

Constitution drafting process

• Drafted without public input -- constitution is give from the emperor to the people
• German legal thought -- Rudolf von Gneist, Lorenz von Stein -- theory of social monarchy
  • the monarchy makes revolution unnecessary by defending the oppressed
  • the monarchy is above class and above class conflict and partisan conflict
  • it reconciles conflict from above
  • the monarchy secures the natural rights of the people, which can be realized only through a state
• Privy Council in 1888, after much debate and some revisions, approved for promulgation in February 1889
• Formal ceremony
  • Emperor begins the day (the 2549 anniversary of descent of the gods) with oath to gods and explanation that the constitution is designed to perpetuate the unbroken line
  • Shinto priest delivers the same message to “myriad gods” at the palace shrine
  • Emperor, in a public ceremony, received the constitution from Itō, declared its promulgation and handed it to the PM, Kuroda Kiyotaka
• Text of Constitution
  • Limited powers of Diet -- articles #37 and #64
  • Rights of people -- articles #28, #29, #27, #23, #24
  • Constraints on Emperor -- article #5

Early Diet

• Limited suffrage means Diet is elite
  • only men who paid at least ¥15 in national taxes were allowed to vote -- this amounted to less that 3% of the population
  • the upper house of the Diet, however, was composed of peers and Imperial appointees -- the approval of the upper house was necessary for legislation
• HOWEVER Diet is intensely anti-government
  • most of the seats go to members of political parties which are critical of the government
  • provides a forum for furious discontent
  • the floor of the Diet is exempt from libel law
  • the first Diet immediately begins attacking the government and passing no-confidence measures
• this absolutely shocks conservative like Yamagata
  • he briefly argues for suspending the Diet entirely
  • instead in 1892 he orders the prefectural governors to intervene to prevent the election of anti-government candidates
  • the resulting violence leaves 25 people dead and over 300 injured
  • It becomes clear that short of martial law --- the parties cannot be suppressed
• the period 1890-94 is one of outright hostility between the government and the parties
  • the government keeps dissolving the Diet
  • the Diet keeps pestering the government
• a new era in compromise is reached in 1895
  • the Jiyūtō supports Itō Hirobumi's cabinet (increased military expenses after the Triple Intervention)
  • in return Itagaki is made Home Minister and his party is given other political plums
  • these sort of ad hoc alliances work fairly well over the period 1895-1900, but there is still a constant process of negotiation
  • in 1898 Okuma and Itagaki form cabinet -- but are unable to govern)
• 1900 Itō Hirobumi tries to develop smoother governmental system
  • he accepts the presidency of the Seiyūkai - (new name for the Jiyūtō) 
  • goal is that rather than negotiate with a political party he will have his own
  • Itō hopes that party would become, as he put it, his "standing army"
• BUT the party proves much more obstreperous than Itō expected
  • it gains legitimacy from Itō's support
  • but proves no more amenable to government control
  • Ito becomes disgusted with his party -- quits in 1903
• New balance of power
  • Prime minister is determined by genrō 元老　or senior statesmen
    • this is not an official body
    • members include Itō Hirobumi, Masataka Masayaoshi, Yamagata Aritomo, Inoue Kaoru
  • Genrō switch between two PMS - Saionji and Katsura
    • Katsura 1901-06
      Saionji 1906-08
      Katsura 1908-11
      Saionji 1911-12
      Katsura 1912-13
  • Saionji is a court noble -- but was originally a great progressive -- studies law in Paris from 1871-80 - ran a newspaper which supported the freedom and popular rights movement -- in the 1890s he serves as education minister and foreign minister when Itō is prime minister -- Saionji becomes Itō close ally and succesor
  • Katsura Tarō is general and Yamagata protege
• During Saionji periods Seiyūkai tries to build support in electorate and administration
  • the rising leader of the party is Hara Kei (Takashi) (1856-1921)
  • he is a former samurai, worked as a journalist before becoming interest in politics
  • famous for pork-barrel politics