The retirement of Ōkuma was followed almost immediately by the issue of a decree fixing the year 1890 as the date for the establishment of a Parliament.
This definite promise at this juncture of a Parliament was interpreted in some quarters as a concession necessitated by the discredit which the Government had incurred through the administrative scandal, and from its position being weakened by Ōkuma’s retirement. But the almost simultaneous issue of the law imposing restrictions on public meetings, and freedom of speech, seems to justify the view that both measures were simply an illustration of the twofold policy of repression alternating with reform which the Government was pursuing.
With the important concession now made by the Government the first period, so to speak, of the agitation for popular rights may be regarded as drawing to its close. The chief features of this period have been noted; the outbreak and suppression of grave disorders, which at one time threatened to put a stop to all national progress; the creation of a strong Government of two clans; the growth of a political movement which derived a large measure of support from public feeling; and the measures taken for its control by the Government. We have also seen how little homogeneous in its character was the opposition party conducting the movement; how it comprised genuine reformers, others actuated mainly by clan jealousy, disappointed politicians, and impecunious shizoku, the wreckage of the feudal system, who were long a disturbing element in politics, and developed later on into the class of political rowdies known as sōshi.
For all of these ill-assorted associates the demand for popular rights was a convenient rallying cry. To the opposition thus formed, which grew gradually more compact as it shed its less desirable elements, the withdrawal of Ōkuma from the Ministry meant the accession of a powerful ally, though his independence of thought and somewhat uncompromising temperament never allowed him to identify himself too closely with the views of other politicians. With the energy and versatility that marked all his actions he threw himself into the movement led by the advanced reformers, and soon appeared in the new rôle of educationalist. Following the example set by Fukuwaza fifteen years earlier, he established the Waséda College, now a University, which remains a monument to his abilities. Like his predecessor, he was a voluminous author, never, however, writing himself but dictating to an amanuensis, and founded a daily paper which is still in circulation. Like him, again, he could lay claim to having trained a very large number of those who now fill official posts in Japan.
The political creeds of the advanced reformers, with whom Ōkuma was to be associated for the seven years during which he remained in opposition, were necessarily shaped to some extent by the foreign influences with which the Japanese people first came into touch after the reopening of the country to foreign intercourse. Western political literature of all kinds, in which the product of advanced American thought figured largely, was then eagerly studied by a people shut out for centuries from contact with the outside world. Under these circumstances it is only natural that the republican atmosphere of Japan’s nearest Western neighbour—the first to enter into Treaty relations with her—should have coloured in some degree the political aspirations of those who were clamouring for popular reforms, and have even affected the studies of students in the educational institutions to which attention has been drawn.
CHAPTER XVI
Promise of Representative Government—Political Parties—Renewed Unrest—Local Outbreaks.
The decree announcing the Imperial decision to establish a Parliament in 1890 was issued on the 12th October, 1881. In this decree the Emperor refers to his intention from the first to establish gradually a constitutional form of government, evidence of which had already been furnished by the creation of a Senate (Genrō-in) in 1875, and the drafting, three years later, of the laws concerning local government-measures designed, it is explained, to serve as a foundation for the further reforms contemplated. Conscious, His Majesty proceeds to observe, of his responsibility in the discharge of his duties as Sovereign to the Imperial ancestors, whose spirits were watching his actions, he declares his determination to proceed with the work of reform, and charges his Ministers to make preparations for the establishment of a Parliament at the time appointed; reserving to himself the task of deciding, later on, the questions of the limitations to be imposed on the Imperial prerogative, and the character of the Parliament to be created. The decree dwells on the undesirability of sudden and startling changes in administration, and concludes with a warning to the people, under pain of the Imperial displeasure, not to disturb the public peace by pressing for innovations of this nature.
Although the granting of a Constitution was not expressly mentioned in the decree, the reference in it to the limitations to be imposed on the Imperial prerogative clearly implied that the creation of a Parliament, and the granting of a Constitution, would go together. That the latter, when promulgated, would be a written Constitution was also clear both from the circumstances of the time and from the methods already followed by the Government in carrying out its policy of legislative reforms.
No time was lost in beginning the preparations mentioned in the Imperial announcement. In March of the following year, as we read in the reminiscences contributed by him to Fifty Years of New Japan, the late Prince (then Mr.) Itō was ordered by the Emperor to prepare a draft of a Constitution, and on the fifteenth of the same month he set out, he tells us, on “an extended journey in different constitutional countries to make as thorough a study as possible of the actual workings of different systems of constitutional government, of their various provisions, as well as of theories and opinions actually entertained by influential persons on the actual stage itself of constitutional life.” In the prosecution of this enquiry into constitutional matters, which occupied his attention for eighteen months, Prince Itō was assisted by a numerous staff of assistants.
By the definite promise of a Parliament, to be accompanied by a Constitution, the position of the agitators was changed. With the disappearance of their chief grievance the ground had been cut from under their feet. It was no longer a question of whether there should be a Parliament or not, but what sort of Parliament the one to be established in 1890 should be. Neither on this point, however, nor on the framing of the Constitution, was there any intention of consulting the nation. The decree had expressly stated that these questions would be reserved for the Imperial decision later on. While the Government, therefore, proceeded with its preparations for the establishment of representative institutions, it was incumbent on the leaders of the opposition party to prepare on their side for the time when constitutional government of a kind would be an accomplished fact, and complete their organization in readiness for the Parliament, whose opening would furnish them with the desired field for their activities. Thus, the effect of the Imperial decree was to hasten the development of political parties. For these, when formed, there was little to do until representative institutions came actually into operation; and their restricted sphere of utility was still further reduced by the increasing severity of the repressive measures adopted by the Government. Nevertheless, the same things which had previously assisted the progress of the agitation for popular reforms now encouraged the development of political parties. These were: the magic of the expressions “public discussion” and “public opinion,” first heard at the time of the Restoration, which had captivated the public ear all the more, perhaps, from their being imperfectly understood; and the novelty, always attractive to the Japanese people, of the methods adopted by the advanced reformers in the shape of public meetings and public addresses which were a new phenomenon in the history of the country.