The Imperial Diet In Japan As The Transformation Era Of Japan

For about 250 years, Japan was reigned by a shogun from the Tokugawa clan. However, they were weakened in 1858 and overthrown in 1867 by the Meiji regime who cooperated with the Satsuma and Choshu clan. The main reasons are because they were unable to tackle with the foreign powers’intrusion and was blamed for the signing the unequal trade treaties that had inflicted upon Japan. Subsequently, in the year 1867 until 1912, Japan was ruled in the era of Meiji under the the great Emperor Mutsuhito. Accordingly, Meiji era was considered to be the transformation era in Japanese society.

When the Meiji government came to power, Emperor Mutsuhito wanted to guarantee that the new order would be impartial and justice. Hence, Charter Oath or the Imperial

The basic concept of the constitutions is that all citizens are equal before the law and Emperor Mutsuhito have the absolute power. The Imperial Diet had two houses with coequals power – House of Representative and House of Peers. Here, Diet played their role in the legislative such as approving the government legislations, initiating law and lastly, make representations to the government. Nonetheless, although the emperor was said to be the head of the state, the power of the authority was actually in the hand of the elder stateman also known as the Genro. The role of Genro are to determine the institutions, political stability, foreign approval and national pride. Additionally, they are considered as the founding fathers of Japanese’s modernization. Nonetheless, through the command of Genro, Japan had recovered of its foreign trade and legal system. That is by seizing control of Korea and Liaodong Peninsula in Southern Manchuria after defeating the Chinese in Sino-Japanese War in 1895. However, Japan realized that they were still incompatible with the West when the triple entente forced to return the Liaodong Peninsula. Ever since, Japanese imperialism and military expansion were intense to achieved their sovereignty. Subsequently, after the Meiji era ended in 1912, Japan had a highly centralized bureaucratic government and had a civilized population free from

At this point , the government invested heavily on the progress of the telegraph and telephone systems, lighthouses, railways, shipping line and etc. Additionally, fifty-three types of consumer products industries were also formed such as the making textiles and silks, cements, chemical plants, gunpowder and etc. However, over the course of time the industries were becoming very expensive for the government to control. Hence, the government decided to sell some of the industries to private sector in 1880 and encouraged such trade activities through incentives and subsidies. With this, the idea of capitalism was rooted. Moreover, it was the beginning of the Zaibatsu System. Basically, Zaibatsu system is a term represent by a large Japanese business conglomerate that are influence enough to control over a enormous part of Japanese economy. Therefore, the affiliation between the private sector and the government played a vital role even until today as it remarkably had help the in the Japanese