IMPERIAL JAPAN

1. The Election
a. Election Law
-limited the franchise to men who
paid a direct national tax of 15 yen
-minimize the possibility for rootless
radicalism
-1890:
>land tax gave 60% of gov. revenue
=Landlords will be represented
>15 highest taxpayers of each
metropolitan city & prefecture could
select 1 of their number every 7 years
BUT wealth must be in land, industry
or commerce
-Jiyto and Kaishint Political
parties
>campaign against weak kneed
government diplomacy
>by 1890, alliance was dismantled
-Election Manifesto: maintain
national dignity
>call for responsible cabinets
-Tani Kanj:
>call for military geared toward
defense
>return to morality and hierarchy
>member of House of Peers
>campaigned for the votes of
ordinary citizens
>attacked the expansionist and
ultimately military policies of the
modernizers
-Art. 55 the respective Ministers of
State shall give their advice to the
Emperor and be responsible for it
-Election Campaign
>return of favor for favor concept
>strong-arm tactics
>opponents criticized Jiyt:
widespread use of toughs (soshi)
-Election turnout
>191 commoner & 109 former
Shizoku were elected (indication of
change in class and status)
>125 from agri; 33 trade and
commerce = dominate electoral
politics and Imperial Diet until WWII
>Meibka local notables
o Pillars of influence in rural
society

Enabled pol leaders to

establish a firm base in pol
turf
o Ex.
Inukai
Tsuyoshi:
repeatedly retuned from his
district in Okayama till 1932
o iron constituency can be
inherited upon members
death in a bond that survived
war, change, etc.
o 1990s: 40% of the Japanese
HoR were 2nd & 3rd Gen
-Motivation for change in electoral
politics:
>objection to centralization and the
Satsuma-Choshu monopoly of power
>provincialism saw the superiority
of Japanese society
>Monarch System came from Japan
which had become common to
constitutional countries
o

2. Politics under the Meiji Consitution

>spoke of Minister of State
>did not explain process of Prime
Minster selection
>In practice the senior statesmen
decided on the rotation to be
followed, after which the emperor
charged the designee to for ma
government > GREAT COMMAND
>granted many rights except the
right to property (central to a modern
capitalist society)
>Diet members were free from
arrest unless with the consent of the
House
>No say in cabinet formation
>Budget is decided by the Diet
o If budget has not been
brought into existence, the
Govt shall carry out the
budget of the preceding year
o Budget Process: must be
considered by the HoR and
the House of Peers
o Japans entry to century of
war
and
expansion:
demanding heavier taxes

IMPERIAL JAPAN
1892: HoR interference in
elections
with
direct
intimidation sshi violence;
Briber
o Difficulties
and
embarrassment
Prime
Ministers
experience
in
getting
budgets
approved
helps explain the frequency of
cabinet changes
>Satsuma-Chsh domination:
guaranteed the intransigence of the
pol.
Party
leaders
who
had
experienced repression in the 1880s
o Mission to bring down gov.
made up of their enemies
>genr: equal and served in one
anothers cabinet
o Entered the peerage as
counts & received rapid
promotion as the Meiji state
grew in strength
o Okuma found himself hardpressed
to
control
his
associates esp. Toru who was
then
a
minister
in
Washington = manifestation
that there is no longer a true
hierarchy
of
generally
accepted status
-Oligarchs:
frequently
in
disagreement
as
to
how
the
government should treat the
>Yamagata: government should
be above party politics in Diet; Diets
duty to provide the legislation &
money
>It: cooperation with the Diet;
o thought of forming his own
party that could deliver the
Diet votes
o roused rage -> Matsukata
responded with strong-arm
interference in the 1892
elections
o Manipulated the emperor;
Diet withheld funds for
naval expansion -> lowered
official;s salaries by 10% for
6 years -> Lower house filed
o

for the impeachment of then

speaker of the House Hoshi
Toru = Emperor: did they
expect Hoshi Toru to correct
their mistake by dissolving
the Diet?
-Military-civil relations
>reserved all functions of
command to the sovereign = military
officials attempted to sway the
government on the issue of increases
in budget allocation
>1892: war and navy ministers
refused to attend cabinet meetings,
Matsukata prepared to step down as
Prime Mins. = Manifestation of
Military autonomy (until 1900)
>Military expenditure: fastest
growing
part
of
government
expenditure (partly due to foreign
wars)
o War against ChingChina
double
increase
in
expenditure = Jap. Taxpayers
were being asked to provide
a higher % of their income
-Inauguration of Imperial Diet
>constituted a basic change in the
rules of Japanese politics
>Rural Japan: slow change of life;
center clash between new interest
groups struggling for the control of
new institutions made the structured
ritual
of
bakufuu
and
domain
government seem centuries earlier
>genro: often at odds as to how to
respond to challenge they faced =
Disunity provided openings for pol.
Party & splinter grps. = PROVIDED
opportunities for the Meiji politicians
o 1st Decade: HoR grew; middecade: Ito offered cabinet
post to Itagaki of Jiyuto ->
Oligarchs experimented w/
the
short-lived
OkumaItagaki cabinet = FAILED
o Cooperation of Pol. Parties in
Diet became pressing

IMPERIAL JAPAN
>Rikken Seiyukai or Friends of
Constitutional Government (created
by Ito)
o Lured most of Jiyuto Diet
representatives
>Economic Change and
developing industrialization (rural to
pay more of the bill for building
modern state)
-1900 Cabinet leadership: Saionji
Kinmochi (Itos chosen successor) &
Gen. Katsura Taro = Modus Vivendi
had been worked out between the
government an opposition groups
-Elements of future political life
>specialist bureaucracy selected
by merit & removed from party
politics
>military service specialist
>Political Parties with strong
constituency support in countryside
>growing industrial sectors
>top-level elite of senior
statesmen
-Japan had emerged as the first nonAtlantic country to make a go of
constitutional
government
&
representative politics
3. Foreign Policy and Treaty Reform
-Major Problems in Foreign Affair:
>Treaty Reform had not been
achieved
>undefined relations with Korea
-1875: Agreement with imperial
Russia had exchanged Jap interests in
Sakhalin for unquestioned ownership
of Kuril Islands
-Border
Relations:
delegated
to
feudatories (Tsushima w/ Korea &
Satsuma w/ Okinawa) = no longer
tolerable
-1874: murder of Okinawan fishermen
by Taiwanese aborigines Chinese
recognition of Japanese control over
Okinawa = Okinawa, integrated to
Japanese polity in 1879
-Meiji
gov.s
obsession
w/
centralization drove policy

>Participation in natl affairs was

limited to former Samurai
>Meiji leaders argued: instantly
change Japans outmoded customs,
set its objectives abroad, promote
industry and eliminate recrimination
among its ppl
>Taiwan expedition:
o unified natl opinion &
bolstered
the
regimes
prestige
o bolstered regimes prestige
o individual preeminence
o Leaders:
competed
for
overseas duties cos success
would translate to POWER.
-Relations with Korea
>gunboat diplomacy in the
interests of free trade imperialism
>1875: Koreans fired on Jap
gunboats in Korean waters
>Kuroda Kiyotaka: sent as
emissary w/ military to Korea; treaty
w/ Korea
o 3 Korean ports opened for
trade
o consular
jurisdiction
->
extraterritoriality
o Korea,
declared
fully
independent from China
>1871: Treaty w/ Peking on a
basis of equality
>1873: Foreign Minister Soejima
1st among Great Power diplomats
received in audience with the Manchu
emperor, the ff have come at the cost
to Chinas trust
o Taiwan
expedition
(China
reimbursed
Jap
costs
&
improvements)
o Annexation of Okinawa
o Denial of Koreas tributary
status
>Treaty of 1876: did not solve the
Korean problem for long
o Set the stage for intense
political rivalry w/in sectors of
the Korean Confucian Yangban
elite & young reformers for

IMPERIAL JAPAN
whom Meiji Japan provided a
model of Modernization = for
securing National sovereignty
o Partisans of Rivalry: attracted
support of China vs. Japan;
became a duel fro control of
Korea = Sino Japanese War
1894-95
-Standoff in Korea in 3 stages:
A. 1st stage 1881: Japanese military
mission arrived in Korea to help train
a modern military
o Japan: Fukuzawa Yukichi
patronized students from
Korea and activists called for
close relations from Korea.
o Korea: alarmed factions of
elite
>1882: Queens faction was
ousted traditional army units rioted
against the Japanese advisers
o China
sent
troops
&
abducted Jap regent to
China
>mission of apology came to
Tokyo: many of the young Koreans
were welcomed with open arms by
opposition grps who charged the Meiji
government w/ a weak and craven
foreign policy
B. 2nd stage 1884: Now the turn of
Korean reformers & their Japanese
sympathizers to overplay their hand
>Party of the queen: hostile to
reform and to the Japanese -> bloody
coup d tat in Seoul
>Chinese troops: urgently
requested by the conservatives to
overthrow pro-Japanese government
that had been formed
o Korean mobs killed 40 Jap
officers and residents
o Meiji Business called to a
halt
o Foreign
Minster
Inoue
Kaoru:
turned
from
problems of treaty reform to
head for Seoul to patch
things up

Korean apologized for the

deaths of the Japanese;
promised
to
rebuild
Japanese legation
o Tientsin Agreement: mutual
withdrawal of forces from
Korea; superior status of
Japan in their treaties w/
Korea -> both China &
Japan were entitled to
station legation guards at
their Seoul headquarters
o Leaders of Korean reform
group: fled to Japan, refused
to extradite them despite
Korean demands -> Tokyo
Gov. kept them at arms
length
o Era of Chinese ascendancy
began: Li Hung-Chang sent
Yuan Shih-kai to Seoul:
proceeded to erect the
structure of an informal
empire protectorate
>1894: Seem to regard the Japanese
as wild beasts
o Trade: Matsukata deflation
-> made Jap goods more
competitive & exports to
Korea rose
o Large-scale emigration of
Japanese overseas
o Hatten-expansion
and
development ->State growth
o

>Meiji gov. 1st priority: secure treaty

reform with the West
o Difficult
for
Japan
to
encourage
industrial
development
o Western powers threatened
Japan
o Foreign
Minister
Inoue:
Contact
w/
westerners
everywhere in Japan on a
daily
basis
would
speed
Japans
modernization
=
benefits > Danger - > accept
foreign judges on panels
resolving issues arising from

IMPERIAL JAPAN
mixed residence & internation
trade
o caused
widespread
indignation -> Daido Danketsu
united front against foreign
participation and intervention
in
Japan;
kept
from
participating in framing of the
consitutition
>Okuma Shigenobu replaced Inoue
upon his resignation
>1887: Peace ordinance whereby
500 pol. Party leaders were banished
from Tokyo (did not help)
>Okumas plans:
o bilateral
meetings
&
concentrated
on
Great
Britain
o Use of foreign judges to be
phased out upon completion
of Japans new law codes
o October: treaty reform in
abeyance
o Patriotic society threw a
bomb
at
Okuma
->
resignation
=showed how popular interest
enthusiasm & outrage were becoming
a
factor
for
the constitutional
government
-Revival of political opposition in the
united front movement
>cabinet shift
>sensational trial of activist Oi
Kentaro (instigated guerilla movement
in Korea)
-Inauguration of constitutional
government
>Yamagata rejected treaty plans
for reform
>Matuskata (PM before Ito) issue
became tangled w/ discussion of new
law codes
>Ito dissolved HoR = breathing
space for the govt. (to quiet their
opposition)
-1894 New treaty with Great Britain
did away with consular courts
o Tariff autonomy was to follow in
4 years

Japan: agreed to keep treaty in

abeyance
o 1911 case of the US full
agreement on tariff autonomy
(treaty
of
Commerce
&
Navigation)
-Unequal treaties imposed inferiority
on Japan for a full half century; not
completely outgrown until the very
end of the Meiji period
o

4. War with China

-War HQ set up at Hiroshima w/ Diet
+ Emperor support and leadership
-Japan:
fought
for
the
Independence of Korea from China
-> war seemed to presage a new
sense of national purpose
-Ito & Li Hung-chang had worked out
an agreement on Korea in Tientsin ->
China
had
enjoyed
political
ascendancy at Seoul
-Yuan Shih-kai -> worked a
protectorate for China
>Control > Reform
>Blocked the efforts of Korean
reformers to bring abt steps toward
admin modernization & efficiency
-1890s: Korean govt preoccupied w.
suppression of millenarian movement
(Tong-Hak_
>murder of a Korean inflamed
Japanese opinion Kim Ok-kyun
o activists saw in him hope for a
future
role
in
Korean
modernization
o murdered then body parts
were distributed
o British authorities concluded
that rules against extradition
did not apply to a corpse ->
turned over to Chinese admin
o Setback for Japans stature
and
Dignity
&
Korean
Barbarity
>Alarmed Meiji Leaders to cut
the Gordian Knot of Korean
reform & eliminate Chinese
influence

IMPERIAL JAPAN
>Tientsin Agreement entitled
Japan to send forces in Korea
o Presented an opportunity
o Tokyo gov. to ask Chinese to
join in demanding that the
Koreans carry out gov.
reforms
>Reforms demanded by Japan
to Korea
o Establishment
of
a
specialized bureaucracy in a
newly
rationalized
government structure: new
judiciary,
rational
accounting for government
finances, modern military
o Japan wanted to be 1st in
line; economic primacy ->
conditioned
on
political
change; power politics
o Koreans: hesitated; Chinese
declined to join the Japanese
in forcing modernization on
the Koreans
>1894: Japan -> War in Korea
(Pyongyang as principal battle land)
o Japan victory over China:
towards modernization of
society & armed services
o concert of powers bet
Japan and China
>Treaty of Shimonoseki 19 th
century most damaging to China
o transfer of territory
o economic privileges
o large monetary payment
o new round of imperialist
advances
(threatened
Chinese soverieignty)
o China agreed that Korea
was independent
o Routes to Yangtze River
o Establish
factories
in
Shanghai

guaranteed
Japan a larger financial
stake
o righteous war had proved
to be piratical war
>European interference

Germany Russia & France

fore the pace of Asia it
would be best for Japan to
return to Liaotung (South
Manchurian)
o Triple Intervention: imperial
rescript exhorted Japanese
to remain calm & diligent in
adversity
>Divide in Japanese public opinion
and Nationalism
o Respect
for
Koreans
declined
o Japanese violence against
Chinese ex-soldiers
o Notion that Japan were
freeing Korea from China =
success
o War bet. a country which is
trying to develop civilization
vs. a country which disturbs
the
development
of
civilization
>Wars impact on politics -> offer a
cabinet post to commanders
>failed to solve Japans Korean
problem
o Puppet government
o Joint
Japanese-Korean
commission was to meet and
decide upon those matters
necessary to consolidate
Koreas independence and
autonomy = elimination of
Chinese
influence
(Japs
perspective)
o Korean Government treaty
of alliance with Japan
promise ng Korean help in
moving troops and supplies
o Sent Inoue Kaoru to korea to
clean
out
pockets
of
conservatism
o 1895 40 Jap advisers were
in place in the Royal
household;
power
and
influence grew steadily
o Gains were dependent on a
program of loans give
o

IMPERIAL JAPAN
Inoue
Leverage
and
influence
>General Miura Goro went along
with plans for a coup against the Min
faction that was to have the support of
the Taewongun
o October 7, 1895 mixed grp of
Koreans and Japanese invaded
the palace, stabbed the queen
and killed several members of

the royal household staff ->

Japan had succeeded in little
more than replacing Chinese
with
Russian
influence
in
Korea.