A very noticeable feature of Japanese parliamentary government is the increasing tendency towards moderation observable in the political world—shown, that is to say, at elections, in parliamentary proceedings, and in the Press. During the earlier years of the Diet’s existence elections were conducted amidst scenes of violence and disorder. Party polemics both inside and outside of Parliament were carried on with an absence of decorum and self-restraint which augured badly for the future working of parliamentary institutions; political passions were inflamed by the recriminations of party journals; and a new class of political rowdies, called sōshi, stood ready to intervene whenever their services might be required. Bands of these rowdies carrying wooden clubs escorted popular leaders in the Lower House through the streets of the Capital, and during two or three of the stormiest sessions the precincts of the Diet presented the singular spectacle of rows of gendarmes and police confronted by regiments of sōshi. The political rowdy of those days is fast disappearing, his occupation, like that of his predecessor, the rōnin, having gone; while turbulence, riotous conduct, and intemperate writing are no longer regarded as the necessary accompaniments of parliamentary life. One of the moderating influences in Japanese public life has been the existence usually of a general understanding, more tacit, perhaps, than expressed, between the Government and people on broad questions of national policy. Another may be found in the rapid progress of the nation. A people so busily engaged as the Japanese have been in making up for the time lost by centuries of seclusion is disinclined to pay too much attention to such matters as jealousy of “clan government,” or objections to naval and military expansion, more especially if the policy pursued in both respects is attended with success, as in Japan’s case.

From this brief sketch of Japanese parliamentary history it will be seen that circumstances have conspired to focus attention on the proceedings of the Lower House. It is there that the struggles between rival factions, and between the Diet and the Government have chiefly been conducted, and issues involving the fate of parties and of Cabinets decided. Although, however, the Upper House has consequently played a less conspicuous part in parliamentary affairs, this has not been due to any hesitation to assert its authority when necessary. It has never shrunk from joining issue with the Lower House in regard to matters within its competency, pushing its claims so far as to assert successfully its right to amend money bills. Differing from the other Chamber in its composition, in the grouping of its members which has no relation to parties in the Lower House, and in its greater exposure, through the class of Imperial nominees, to powerful bureaucratic influences, the Upper House has never concealed the fact that its sympathies are with the Government; and it was its whole-hearted support that brought the latter safely through the parliamentary crisis of 1901 and 1902.

In view of the short interval which separated the establishment of representative institutions from feudalism, and the unsettled condition of affairs that prevailed for some years after the Restoration, the nation has good reason to be satisfied with the results which have so far attended the working of parliamentary government.

CHAPTER XXI
Treaty Revision—Great Britain Takes Initiative—Difficulties with China.

The year 1894 marks a memorable stage in the rise of Japan to the position in the world she has since attained. It witnessed two events of far-reaching importance: the revision of the Treaty between Great Britain and Japan, which, though only the first of a series, practically solved the long-pending question of Treaty revision; and the outbreak of war with China. The new Treaty with Great Britain was signed on the 16th July, and within a fortnight of its signature Japan was at war with her continental neighbour. Both events, it may be noted in passing, had a calming effect on parliamentary proceedings, the Diet then in existence, though not actually in session, being the only one which lasted for the full constitutional term of four years.

The question of the revision of the treaties with foreign Powers has been referred to more than once in previous chapters. These treaties, as we have seen, formed part of a series of Conventions concluded between the years 1858 and 1869, which were framed on the same lines, while their effect was rendered uniform by the “most-favoured-nation” clause contained in each. As has already been pointed out, the features of the treaties which caused dissatisfaction in Japan were the concession of extra-territoriality, and the absence of any fixed period for their duration. Revision being subject to the consent of both parties, it was felt that Japan might be indefinitely deprived of tariff autonomy and the right of exercising jurisdiction over foreigners in her own territory. It was not unnatural that the Japanese Government, while overlooking the many disadvantages attaching to foreign residence and trade in what was a mere fringe of the country, should, as soon as it became aware that the character of the treaties was different from that of those made by Western Governments with each other, have taken an early opportunity to protest against conditions which were regarded as derogatory to the dignity of the nation, nor that it should have made repeated attempts to secure their removal by negotiation with the Powers concerned. We have seen how the failure of these efforts roused popular feeling, supplied political agitators with a weapon used with effect in the campaigns they directed from time to time against the Government, and eventually led to a serious recrudescence of the anti-foreign feeling of pre-Restoration days; so that by the time that the Constitution came into operation Treaty revision was no longer regarded as a mere matter of departmental policy, with which the public at large had little concern, but had become, so to speak, a national question.

In view of the importance which this question gradually came to assume in public affairs, affecting as it did both domestic policy and foreign relations, it may be well, at the risk of some repetition, to give a succinct account of the lengthy negotiations on this subject, asking the indulgence of the reader, should he be taken over ground traversed before.

Undeterred by the failure, already recorded, of Prince Iwakura’s mission in 1872, the Japanese Government made another attempt two years later to negotiate a new Treaty which would, it was hoped, be the forerunner of others. The relations between the United States and Japan were at this time, if anything, more friendly than those of Japan with other Powers. This was to a great extent the natural result of circumstances. By taking the initiative in the reopening of Japan to foreign intercourse, America had given evidence of an intention to pursue an independent policy in regard to foreign questions. Having been the first Western Power to appear on the scene, her influence had been the first to be felt in Japan. Moreover, her great commercial expansion being still in its infancy, she had fewer interests to protect in Japan than older countries. American representatives were thus spared much of the friction with the Japanese authorities which fell to the lot of other foreign representatives. Influenced probably by these considerations, it was to the United States that the Japanese Government addressed its overtures on this occasion. They were favourably received, and a new Treaty was negotiated with little difficulty. But the Treaty remained a dead letter owing to the inclusion of a clause providing that it should come into operation only when similar treaties had been concluded with other Powers.

For several years no further steps were taken by the Japanese Government in the matter of Treaty revision. Ministerial dissensions and the disturbed state of the country, which culminated in the Satsuma rebellion, called for the concentration of attention on domestic affairs. Foreign questions, therefore, ceased for a time to be a subject of public interest. By this time also it is probable that the Government began to realize more clearly than before the nature of the objections entertained by foreign Powers to the revision of their treaties with Japan; and to understand that, so far as the point of extra-territoriality was concerned, the unwillingness of foreign Governments to accede to Japanese demands was based on the reasonable ground that, until some substantial evidence of progress in the direction, at least, of legal reforms, was forthcoming, they must naturally hesitate to make their subjects amenable to Japanese jurisdiction. The energy and determination with which the Japanese Government set to work to carry out legal and judicial reforms showed that it was alive to the necessity of meeting the objections of foreign Powers in the direction indicated. One result of the progressive spirit displayed was, as we have seen, the promulgation of a Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure, framed in accordance with Western ideas, which came into operation early in 1882. In the autumn of that year negotiations for Treaty revision were reopened, and a preliminary conference of the representatives of Japan and the leading Treaty Powers was held in Tōkiō. No definite result was then reached, but the ground was cleared for subsequent discussion, which took place four years later, the Japanese Capital being, as before, the seat of negotiations. At this second and more formal conference, at which no less than seventeen Treaty Powers were represented, and which lasted from May, 1886, to June, 1887, definite progress was made. In the end, however, negotiations were abruptly broken off by the Japanese delegates, in consequence, as was understood at the time, of popular dissatisfaction with the proposed employment of foreign judges in Japanese Courts of First Instance and Courts of Appeal in cases where foreigners were defendants. In 1889 negotiations were again reopened in Tōkiō. The proposals then submitted by Count (afterwards Marquis) Ōkuma, as Foreign Minister, were accepted by the American and Russian Governments; but public feeling again showed itself hostile to the appointment of foreign judges, even on the reduced scale contemplated by the new proposals. The attempted assassination of the Minister who had brought them forward once more put a stop to negotiations, and arrangements were made for the cancellation of the two treaties that had been concluded.

On all these occasions discussion had centred chiefly round the question of Japanese jurisdiction over foreigners. The main difficulty had always been the same: to reconcile the natural desire of foreign Governments to secure such guarantees in the matter of the administration of justice as would safeguard the surrender of extra-territorial privileges with the equally natural wish of Japan to recover the right of jurisdiction over foreigners in her territories. And it will be seen that even when a compromise satisfactory to both negotiating parties had been, or was about to be, reached, the sensitiveness of the public in Japan concerning any point which it regarded as detrimental to Japanese dignity prevented its acceptance by the nation.