Government of Japan

“ What we have to remember is that Japan is, like all nations to a degree, a dual nation; there are two Japans—the one clinging to the old militaristic, autocratic notion of government, the other struggling to understand and realize the meaning of a united, coöperating world in which each man and each nation shall have a chance at peaceful, prosperous living. ”

“ There is now a growing sentiment in Japan which strongly favours constitutional monarchy, a growing feeling against hereditary power, hereditary rank, and hereditary possessions. It may be that the bright hopes of some of my people will not be realised at once, but if the past is taken as an index of what is to come, I am encouraged to say that the progress of the future will find Japan, in a very few years, in the front rank of advanced and civilised nations, with a Government as liberal in form and generous to its citizens as that of any monarchy under the sun. ”

“ The intimacy between our own country and Japan, the most advanced of the Eastern nations, continues to be cordial. I am advised that the Emperor contemplates the establishment of full constitutional government, and that he has already summoned a parliamentary congress for the purpose of effecting the change. Such a remarkable step toward complete assimilation with the Western system can not fail to bring Japan into closer and more beneficial relationship with ourselves as the chief Pacific power. ”

“ It is probably true that the great mass of the Japanese care very little, if any, whether their government is an absolute or a constitutional monarchy; know scarcely anything about the cabinet, the Imperial Diet, the new codes, and such things; and are contented with the old customs, costumes, ceremonies, and religions. They are not like that Irishman who, when he was asked, immediately upon landing in New York, to which party he belonged, promptly replied, “I’m agin the government.” The common people of Japan go to the other extreme and are always “for the government” ”

“ In this law we find provisions recapitulating orders issued by the emperor in the Kwampei era, to the effect that men should study the ancient poetry of Japan, that the prime minister, the minister of the left, and the minister of the right should rank above the princes of the blood; that the ranks held by samurai should be considered entirely distinct from those held by court nobles, and so forth. Men said that this law was designed to augment the prestige of the imperial house, but in reality it set limits to the exercise of the sovereign's authority. ”

“ The Japanese Government are ready to accept the terms enumerated in the joint declaration which was issued at Potsdam on July 26, 1945, by the heads of the Governments of the United States, Great Britain, and China, and later subscribed by the Soviet Government with the understanding that the said declaration does not comprise any demand which prejudices the prerogatives of His Majesty as a Sovereign Ruler. ”

“ Having been singularly well trained by her long history in the past, and impelled by the dictates of her vital interests, Japan had resolutely entered upon the new career, and had step by step committed herself to an open and progressive policy from which there could be no return, and which had to be carried forward against all obstacles, if she would exist and grow as a nation. ”

“ Had not the foreigners come, the Restoration might have been effected, feudalism might have been abolished, but the new Japanese constitution would hardly have seen the day. Had the government of Japan at the time of the advent of foreigners been in the strong hand of a Taiko or an Iyeyasu, the rulers might have been greatly exercised by the extraordinary event, but public opinion for reform would hardly have been called forth, and the birth of constitutional liberty would long have been delayed. ”

“ With a government drawing for itself lines parallel with those of enlightened western nations, increasing the freedom of its people, the power of the people’s legislators, and the honesty of the people’s courts, Japan has every right to name herself as worthy of a place in full brotherhood with the family of civilized nations. ”

“ Japan has furnished abundant evidence of her vast gain in every trait and characteristic that constitutes a nation's greatness. We have reason for congratulation in the fact that the Government of the United States, by the exchange of liberal treaty stipulations with the new Japan, was the first to recognize her wonderful advance and to extend to her the consideration and confidence due to her national enlightenment and progressive character. ”

“ The nominal reason for the war, to which the Japanese Government has been careful to adhere, was the absolute necessity for the reform of the internal administration of a State too near the shores of Japan to be suffered to sink annually deeper into an abyss of misgovernment and ruin. ”

“ It is undeniably true that, viewed from the vantage-ground attained by popular institutions and constitutional government in many Occidental nations, Japan is still lagging behind. It is not fair, however, to judge her by our own standards; the only just way is to estimate carefully the exact difference between her former and her present conditions. This the author has tried to do elsewhere in a pamphlet96 on “Constitutional Government in Japan,” in which he has given a sketch of the workings of the Japanese Constitution during the first decade, or period, of its history. ”

“ It is in the acts of the Japanese Government that a true exposition of Japan's policy in China is to be found; and the most recent expose of the real policy and objects of Japan visavis China is contained in the famous "Twenty-One Demands" made by the Japanese Government to the Chinese Government in 1915. ”

“ Art. 3—Japan possessing paramount political, military, and economic interests in Korea, Great Britain recognizes Japan's right to take such measures for the guidance, control, and protection of Korea as she may deem proper and necessary to safeguard and advance those interests, providing the measures so taken are not contrary to the principle of equal opportunities for the commerce and industry of all nations. ”

“ On March 4 of that year the emperor proceeded to the Shishinden palace, where, in the presence of the court nobles and feudal barons, he solemnly pronounced the famous oath in five articles, which has become the foundation of the constitutional government of new Japan, that henceforth administrative affairs should be decided by general deliberation; that both the government and the people should labor for the good of the nation; that encouragement should be given to industrial pursuits ”

“ In point of military discipline and bravery, the Japanese far exceed the [pg 181] Chinese, and are by no means of so base and effeminate dispositions as most of the inhabitants of that great empire. The government also of Japan is perfectly uniform and well settled, so that there cannot be any diversity of interests; for, though several of its provinces are denominated kingdoms, yet all these petty kings are under the strictest subjection to the emperor, and the laws of the country extend over all. ”

“ The idea of popular representation in the government of Japan may be said to have had its birth with the Restoration, although some thoughtful men had been turning their minds in that direction at an earlier date. His Imperial Majesty the present Emperor, in his oath377 on the occasion of his succession to the throne, made known his enlightened desire that men should meet in council from all parts of the country and all affairs of state be determined in accordance with public opinion. ”

“ The supremacy of Japan in Eastern Asia means far more for America and American institutions than does the domination of Russia. Japan to-day enjoys rights unknown in Russia: social freedom, political privileges, representative institutions, local self-government, intellectual liberty, freedom of assembly and of the press, and religious liberty. Japan is already far in advance of Russia and, in many respects abreast of Germany, in civilization. ”

“ The Japanese people, since the war, has undergone the greatest reformation recorded in modern history with a commendable will, eagerness to learn, and mark capacity to understand, they have from the ashes left in war's work, erected in Japan an edifice dedicated to the primacy of individual liberty and personal dignity, and in the ensuing process there has been created a truly representative government committed to the advance of political morality, freedom of economic enterprise, and social justice. Politically, economically, and socially Japan is now abreast of many free nation of the Earth and will not again fail the universal trust. ”

“ The policy which commended itself to Japan at that epoch was certainly not inspired by a mere love of change, nor by any pronounced preference for foreign ways, nor was it ascribable to a passion for learning, in the abstract, but it was directly prompted by a well-grounded political incentive to action that has never lost its hold on the minds of Government or people, and is indubitably as strong to-day as when its principles were first assented to by the nation at large, close upon forty years ago. ”

“ They point to the weary secular struggles, the bloody rebellions, through which the West has slowly won its way to constitutional government, whereas in Japan what has there been? A grateful and intelligent people accepting the free gift of self-government from a wise and benevolent Sovereign. ”

“ It is a very important matter of policy whether the Japanese Government, in obedience to its divine mission, shall solve the Chinese Question in a heroic manner by making China voluntarily rely upon Japan. ”

“ Ever since the establishment of the present imperial government in 1868, the one unceasing aim of Japan’s foreign policy has been the abolition of the extra-territoriality régime, under which certain quasi-judicial functions are exercised on the Japanese soil by the ambassadors and consuls of the Occidental nations. ”

“ But Commodore Perry breaks down that isolation; and Japan enters, first merely into amity, but afterwards into commercial intercourse, with foreign nations. The break up of the old foreign policy accelerates the break up of the old national policy of government, and civil commotions culminate in the restoration of the Emperor to his lawful authority. Japan is then reconstructed on new lines; and a tremendous internal development prepares the Japanese to be admitted by their generous Emperor into a share of his inherited prerogatives. ”

“ This adoption of the representative system of government by Japan used to be often cited as a rare example of the wonderful progress of a nation not European, and all our subsequent national achievements have been ascribed by foreigners to this radical change of constitution. Every good and every evil, however, which the system is said to possess, has been fully manifested in this country. ”

“ Q Ari, do you have any comment on the election of the new Japanese leader, Junichiro Koizumi, who calls for the radical reform of the Japanese economy? MR. FLEISCHER: Of course, he's been elected the leader of his party. There remains another step until he becomes the prime minister. The United States will, at all times, look forward to working closely with Japan. Japan is a very important ally to this country, and whoever the Japanese select to lead their government, the President will look forward to working closely with. ”

“ Such a conception, however, ignores two considerations of utmost importance, namely, that under the new régime are being created regular channels through which the life of the state will more and more habitually run, and that the tradition, whose force has accumulated through the long history of Japan since her foundation as a state, is the spirit of conciliation on the part of the subject and the habit of assuming political impersonality on the part of the supreme ruler. ”

“ We feel sure, for instance, that Twentieth Century Japan will keep apace with the progress of the world in material civilization. We doubt not that during this century the Japanese people, becoming better fitted, will gradually be admitted to a greater share in the administration of the government, local and national. ”

“ We have been arguing that since constitutional government has irresistible attraction to those who can understand what it is, and since it has already been established in Japan, the other Asiatic nations will begin to desire it, notwithstanding their seeming ignorance and conservatism ”

“ But what is the method by which the Japanese government attempts to meet the demands of the progressive society? No one can understand the principle which guides the policy of the present Cabinet. But it may be asked whether there is any principle at all. In fact, the policy is not guided by anything consistent. The index is neither the sentiment nor the necessity of the people. It is not even the majority of officers that decides the measures of government. They are decided only by the temporary convenience of certain officials who are highest in authority at the time. ”

“ The prerogatives of the Crown had to be secured from excessive interference by the governed,—the government must be absolutely free to employ all the nation’s resources. Without this clear perception of the attributes of sovereignty at the outset, it might have been difficult to have brought all Japan’s strength to bear in the critical situations which have in later years arisen. As matters stand, however, the direct rule of the sovereign, though in some respects the idea of limited monarchy is preserved, remains practically unfettered, and the supreme control rests in the Emperor’s own hands. ”