Prime Minister of Japan

“ Japan was by no means exhausted by the struggle with Russia,—on the other hand, nothing was to be gained by prolonging it to exhaustion point.
The combination of soldier and politician is not so uncommon that it need occasion remark to find it exemplified in the case of Marshal Yamagata, whose abilities as a leader in the field have been almost equalled, though they could not be surpassed, by his talents as chief of a numerous and powerful party in the State. He is the acknowledged head of the Japanese Conservatives, and has served his country as Prime Minister with signal success. ”

“ Japan stands before the world as a champion of “the equality and fraternity of all races.” The so-called “Yellow Peril” is a myth, a fantasy, a delusion; the reality is to be found in the “Golden Opportunity” to win the Orient for Christ through Japan’s leadership.
H. E. Count Katsura, in his official capacity as Prime Minister and speaking in the name of His Majesty the Emperor, has given assurances that the “Yellow Peril” is a myth, and that the religious liberty guaranteed in the Japanese constitution is to be enforced. ”

“ The United States and Japan have a big agenda ahead of us. And we are two important democracies in the Indo-Pacific region, and our cooperation is vital, in my view — and I think in both our views — to meeting the challenges facing our nation and ensuring the future of the region to remain free and open and prosperous.
So I’m looking forward to speaking with the Prime Minister. And our teams are — are tackling a shared agenda. We — we are ready to — ready to get to work. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We left after the sixth race, while the band played with as much vim as if for the first—"God save the Queen!"
Beatrie Hawthorne.
Gordon Town, Jamaica.
From a Knight in Japan.
In answer to your request, I will try to give you a few ideas about Japan. Japan is an ancient island empire; but after the restoration the empire was entirely governed by the Emperor Mustu-Hito, until he gave to the people a constitution, in 1889. The Emperor is assisted in the government by a Prime Minister, a cabinet, and two houses of Parliament. ”

“ Prime Ministn of Japan, 1886; upon inauguration of Constitutional Government was President of House of Peers; concluded Treaty of Shimonoseki with late Li Hung Chang; established present system of peerage in Japan; appointed President of Privy Council; visited England with Prince Arisugawa to attend late Queen's Diamond Jubilee; has been Prime Minister on five occasions, and has filled almost every portfolio of State; cr. Marquis, 1895; appointed Resident General of Corea, 1906; made Privy Councillor of Carea, Feb., 1906. Decorations: The Grand Cordon of Japan, etc. ”

“ But our commitment to meet in person is indicative of the importance and the value we both place on this relationship between Japan and the United States — this partnership.
We had a very productive discussion today. When nations as close as ours get together, we always look for operations and opportunities to do more, and today was no exception. ”

“ The Prime Minister and the Ministers of the Departments may attend the sessions of the Legislative Council at any time and may have a voice in its deliberations, but shall have no vote.
Article 31. All Imperial edicts or rescripts, Imperial messages, laws and Imperial ordinances relating to State affairs shall bear the countersignatures of the Prime Minister and the Ministers of the Departments concerned. ”

“ The Prime Minister shall appoint the Ministers of State. However, a majority of their number must be chosen from among the members of the Diet.
(2) The Prime Minister may remove the Ministers of State as he chooses.
Article 69. If the House of Representatives passes a non-confidence resolution, or rejects a confidence resolution, the Cabinet shall resign en masse, unless the House of Representatives is dissolved with ten (10) days. ”

“ What finally precipitated the downfall of the cabinet was a speech of Ozaki, the Progressive minister of education, which roundly denounced the materialistic tendencies of the age, and declared that if Japan should become a republic her people probably would not hesitate to elect a Vanderbilt or an Astor for president. ”

“ 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” ”

“ True it is that in Japan also there are several political parties, but the Government is not 'a party government' as it is in England or America. In that respect the Government of Japan most resembles that of Germany. According to the constitution, the Ministers of State are responsible only to the Emperor, but every practical statesman knows that no government can be satisfactorily carried on without concurrence of the Diet so long as there is such a body, and therefore in Japan, also, every Ministry has to do its best to count on such good relations with the parties as it can secure ”

“ While young officials and their wives are dancing the modern waltz, utter disregard is shown to the rights and liberties of the people. Thus there are no consistent principles and no united action in the present Cabinet. Each department is acting independently of the other. The present Cabinet may be compared to a headless centipede whose numerous feet move in all sorts of ways.
Yet the Japanese government thinks to win the confidence of all the European governments by introducing superficial changes. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ The government of Japan is a constitutional monarchy in which the emperor not only claims to rule by divine right but by right of divine birth. He is described as Heaven born, and according to the accepted history there has been no break in the family line for twenty-five hundred years. ”

“ The profound respect, verging upon adoration, paid in Japan to the occupant of the Throne is ascribable to an absolute conviction, pervading the minds of all classes of his Majesty’s subjects, that their ruler is a monarch who personally studies the welfare, the happiness, and real [6] comfort, of his people. The feeling that the sovereign takes an almost paternal interest in the well-being of those whom he governs is so universal in Japan as practically to constitute a feature of Japanese national life. It is shared by all, rich and poor, young and old, the noble and the lowly. ”

“ The general reader must not suppose, however, that because politics engage a large share of the work before us, he will, on that account, find it dull. Japan is probably the only country in the world in which diplomacy becomes a pursuit of thrilling excitement. Sometimes it leads to some curious discovery, and reveals to us some part of the political machinery in the government of the country heretofore unsuspected and unknown. Sometimes it furnishes amusing illustrations of the Japanese mode of diplomatic fencing ”

“ The expression is used advisedly, because in Japan, where the prerogatives of the sovereign place him nearly on a level with those rulers whose sway is absolute and autocratic, the Privy Council occupies a position of responsibility [141] that is not shared even by the Cabinet, in those crises that must at times occur in the life of a nation. To the Privy Council in Japan belong all those surviving Elder Statesmen, as they are with fitting respect designated, who have helped to make of Japan the marvellous success as a world power that she has become. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Cabinet being directly responsible to the Emperor, the opposition in the Diet has been powerless [137] to prevent the policy of the Government being carried out,—on the other hand, the statesmen on whose shoulders has rested from time to time the weight of public affairs have been called upon to sustain a heavier burden than would have fallen to their lot had they been armed with fewer powers. That the nation’s business has been conducted on the whole with undeniable prudence and success is due to the personal characteristics, in great measure, of the surviving Makers of Modern Japan. ”

“ The patriotism of the Japanese is blind and unswerving loyalty to what is practically an absolutism. The Emperor can do no wrong, nor can the five ambitious great men who have his ear and control the destiny of Japan. ”

“ This act is of remarkable interest, it being doubtful if history records any similar instance of a monarch decreasing his authority without appeal or pressure from his people. It indicates a liberal spirit that could hardly have been looked for in a nation so recently emerging from semi-barbarism. To-day, Japan differs little from the nations of Europe and America in its institutions and industries, and from being among the most backward, has taken its place among the most advanced nations of the world. ”

“ These sentiments, which are certainly dominant to a large extent with the Residency-General, when reënforced by the growing respect for morality and religion, will—it seems fair to suppose—be even more powerful in the future.
Still further, Japan has successfully overcome many enormous difficulties, and has bravely and well met many most threatening emergencies, during the last fifty years. Over and over again during this period, her case has seemed almost desperate. But each time the nation has rallied and has climbed upward to a higher and better level in its national life. ”

“ Furthermore, the restrictions attached to the acquisition of Japanese nationality take all the sweetness out of the plum, for even after you have gone through the regular processes and have been permitted to sit "amongst these gods on sainted seats," there are still exalted pedestals beyond your reach. You may not become a Minister of State, President, or Vice-President, or a member of the Privy Council ”

“ 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. ”

“ They knew very well that party cabinets are an essential outcome of representative institutions, and that to some kind of party cabinet Japan must come. But they regarded the Imperial mandate as a conservative safeguard, pending the organization and education of parties competent to form cabinets. Such parties did not yet exist, and until they came into unequivocal existence, the Restoration statesmen, who had so successfully managed the affairs of the nation during a quarter of a century, resolved that the steady point furnished by the throne must not be abandoned. ”

“ Unquestioning, implicit obedience is the duty of all subjects. But the present emperor, who is a liberal-minded monarch, has graciously given his people a voice in the government. In 1889 the constitution was promulgated, which laid the foundation for a new order of things. It established the Diet, consisting of two houses, and gave many rights to the people, including local self-government, within certain limits. The franchise is so limited in Japan that a man must annually pay a stipulated amount of tax before he can either vote or run for office. ”