those countries where it has gone into practice, shows by no means an entirely satisfactory experience and is recently found more and more objectionable.
The general object of a constitution is to raise the people to a state of lawful liberty and to secure to the state more effectively the elements of power and civilization. No doubt the enjoyment of political rights, and the security of civil rights based thereon, strengthens the development of human forces, moral, intellectual and economical, and produces a stronger and firmer coherence of the national community, because the common exercise of political rights by the people fosters their national unity. A constitutional government therefore is favorable to the interests of civilization as well as to the national elevation of a people. Although the principles of constitutional government originate more in the West, and especially in the nations of the German race, yet they will be equally applicable to Asiatic nations as they are doubtless able to adopt the principles of Western government in general.
The most essential political right to be granted by a constitution is the right of voting the laws and the taxes. Without this power of self-assertion and self-protection of individual rights, especially of the right of property, by the people, there is no true constitution. The right of voting the laws and taxes is the constitutional center towards which all other political rights gravitate. So the institution of an independent judicature according to law; the respect of law and of individual rights by the administrative authorities; the responsibility of ministers; the exact delineation of the executive power; the acknowledgement of certain general rights of the subjects, as conditional of their personal liberty and of a higher state of civilization—these are, in general, the popular rights which shall be granted by the constitutional law. But this law has not only to define the rights, but also the duties of the people, as with respect to taxation, conscription, the financial requirements of the state and generally submission to every lawful and constitutional exercise of the sovereign power.
Although the constitutions of different countries must agree with regard to the main constitutional principles and objects, yet they differ greatly in particulars according to the national views, wants and history of each country. So also the Japanese Constitution has been modelled according to true constitutional principles which are recognized everywhere. But it cannot in its particulars be criticized according to the constitutional law or practice of special other countries; in its own peculiar features it must be regarded as a pure Japanese law, adapted to the national character of the Japanese people.
His Majesty the Emperor, in graciously granting a constitution to His faithful subjects, makes use of His indisputable sovereign right of modifying the Imperial Government in consideration of the actual internal and international condition of the Empire. No doubt that constitution, so as it is granted, must be accepted and obeyed by the people. The Japanese Constitution will be a constitution by charter, and not by compact between the Sovereign and the subjects. But once being in force, it becomes the law of the land and cannot be altered without the vote of the national representation. Frequent changes of the constitution are not desirable and therefore should be somewhat checked. The constitution of a country should be as firm and stable as the character of a man; a nation which lightly changes its constitution, is similar to a man shaked and whirled by various violent passions. It is to be hoped that the admirable stability of the old constitution will pass over into the new one; and this reason affords a sufficient justification for the time-proven elements of the old monarchical system being transferred into the new constitution as much as it may seem compatible with the principles of a constitutional government.
Footnote
* This document is found in the National Diet Library in the collection Itō Miyoji Bunko. As much as possible, the original text was copied faithfully; this accounts for inconsistencies in capitalization, punctuation, and abbreviations, as well as for the occasional Germanic-English expressions which sometimes had to be clarified. Obvious spelling errors in the original have been corrected, however.
Frontispiece: Takahashi Yuichi: Portrait of Emperor Meiji.
(Courtesy of the Department of the Imperial Household)
1889
THE CONSTITUTION
OF THE
EMPIRE OF JAPAN
(Meiji Constitution, 1889)
The Preamble
Having, by virtue of the glories of Our Ancestors, ascended the Throne of a lineal succession unbroken for ages eternal; desiring to promote the welfare of, and to give development to the moral and intellectual faculties of Our beloved subjects, the very same that have been favoured with the benevolent care and affectionate vigilance of Our Ancestors; and hoping to maintain the prosperity of the State, in concert with Our people and with their support, We hereby promulgate, in pursuance of Our Imperial Rescript of the 12th day of the 10th month of the 14th year of Meiji, a fundamental law of State, to exhibit the principles, by which We are to be guided in Our conduct, and to point out to what Our descendants and Our subjects and their descendants are forever to conform.
The rights of sovereignty of the State, We have inherited from Our Ancestors, and We shall bequeath them to Our descendants. Neither We nor they shall in future fail to wield them, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution hereby granted.
We now declare to respect and protect the security of the rights and of the property of Our people, and to secure to them the complete enjoyment of the same, within the extent of the provisions of the present Constitution and of the law.
The Imperial Diet shall first be convoked for the 23rd year of Meiji and the time of its opening shall be the date when the present Constitution comes into force.
When in the future it may become necessary to amend any of the provisions of the present Constitution, We or Our successors shall assume the initiative right, and submit a project for the same to the Imperial Diet. The Imperial Diet shall pass its vote upon it, according to the conditions imposed by the present Constitution, and in no otherwise shall Our descendants or Our subjects be permitted to attempt any alteration thereof.
Our Ministers of State, on Our behalf, shall be held responsible for the carrying out of the present Constitution, and Our present and future subjects shall forever assume the duty of allegiance to the present Constitution.
CHAPTER ONE
The Emperor
Article I: The Empire of Japan shall be ruled over by Emperors of the dynasty, which has reigned in an unbroken line of descent for ages past.
This article sets forth two fundamental principles of the Japanese Constitution; they are not at all new, but have been in force since times immemorial. They are pronounced in such a strict manner as to exclude for the future even such modifications of the old system of government as have taken place in past times, but have already been abolished since the late restoration.
1 The Japanese Empire shall remain an Imperial Monarchy, so that any other form of government, and especially the republican government, can never be made the law of Japan. The monarchical government has been established in Japan without any interruption for more than 2500 years; in fact, the Japanese Monarchy is the oldest and firmest of the world, and it must therefore be assumed that the monarchical government is the one which is exclusively suitable to the country and congenial to the national character. Consequently, no republican government and no republican institutions can ever be lawfully introduced into Japan; the government and the institutions of the country shall remain forever purely monarchical.
2 The Empire shall be reigned over and governed by the Emperor. This confirms not only the abolition, as effected by the late restoration of the Imperial government, of any divisional power of government, as it has been exercised in old Japan by the territorial princes (Daimyōs) or by a military commander (Shōgun). It confirms also the entire unity and concentration of the monarchical power in