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Meiji Constitution

Constitutions and Founding Charters

Constitution of the Empire of Japan, Japan's first modern constitution, promulgated by Emperor Meiji in 1889. It established a bicameral Imperial Diet with an elected lower house and a prime minister and cabinet appointed by the emperor, while vesting the emperor with supreme authority, including command of the armed forces. It was presented as a gift from the emperor to the people and could be amended only on imperial initiative.

Facts
Year
1889 1
Key Provision
Promulgated by Emperor Meiji on 11 February 1889 and in force from 1890 until Japan's postwar constitution replaced it in 1947, it granted Japan its first modern constitution as an act of imperial favor rather than a document adopted by popular sovereignty: Article 1 declared the empire to be reigned over and governed by a line of emperors unbroken for ages eternal, vesting sovereignty in the throne. It created a bicameral Imperial Diet, an elected House of Representatives alongside an appointed House of Peers, with legislative power exercised only with the Diet's consent, granted subjects civil liberties qualified by law, and placed the supreme command of the army and navy directly under the Emperor rather than the civilian cabinet, a separation that let the military increasingly act independently of elected government through the 1930s. 1
Classification
Document Type
Constitution 1
Original Language
Classical Japanese 2
Connections

Drafted By

Ito Hirobumi, Political Figures

Influenced

Constitutional Monarchy, Systems of Government

Promulgated in 1889, it made Japan a constitutional monarchy with an elected lower house sitting alongside a cabinet appointed by the emperor.

Source Meiji Constitution (Britannica)
Head of State and Head of Government, Political Mechanisms
Source Meiji Constitution (Britannica)
Sovereignty, Political Concepts

Located sovereignty in the emperor rather than in the people.

Source Meiji Constitution (Britannica)

Shaped

Japan, Countries
Source Japan (Britannica)
Sources
1. Meiji Constitution (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • Document type, description
    Constitution of the Empire of Japan, Japan's first modern constitution, promulgated by Emperor Meiji in 1889.
  • Influenced: Sovereignty
  • Influenced: Head of State and Head of Government
  • Influenced: Constitutional Monarchy
View the Source
2. Wikidata: Meiji Constitution
  • Wikidata Q122804, class allow-list match, case-insensitive label variant (w-bbfill-smallsix2-0926/resolve_ci.ps1)
  • Wikidata Q122804 via P407 (w-bbfill-smallsix2-0926/propfill_varchar.ps1)
View the Source
National Diet Library, Japan: Constitution of the Empire of Japan
National Diet Library, JapanIn Group: Constitutions of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Page text
Quote, In Group: Constitutions of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Page text
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.
View the Source
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