Government and Administration.—The government is an hereditary monarchy, the succession being now exclusively in the male line. The Cabinet consists of ten Ministers of State, presided over by a Minister President.
The Upper House, or House of Peers, consists of about three hundred and thirty members—male members of the royal house, life peers, peers elected either for life or for seven years, and other persons nominated by the emperor. The lower house, or House of Representatives, has three hundred and sixty-nine members, who serve for four years, elected by citizens paying taxes of not less than ten yen (five dollars) per annum. The first general election took place in 1890.
Penal and civil codes have been drafted on a European basis, and with a commercial code were published in 1890, and came into force in 1893.
Cities.—The capital of the Japanese Empire, Tôkiô, formerly called Yedo, is the residence of the emperor; population, 2,186,079. Other cities are: Osaka, 1,226,590; Kiôto, the ancient capital, 442,462; Nagoya, 378,231; Kōbe, 378,197; Yokohama, 394,303; Hiroshima, 142,763; Nagasaki, 176,480; Kanazawa, 110,994; Kure, 100,679. The chief ports are Yokohama, Kōbe, Osaka, Nagasaki, and Hakodate.
Tokio, or Tokei (“Eastern Capital”), is the chief city of the Japanese Empire. Until 1868, when the emperor removed his court thither from Kyōtō, it was known as Yedo (“Estuary Gate”). Its position at the mouth of the rivers which drain the largest plain of Japan, fits it to be a national center. The lower portion of the city, which is flat and intersected by canals, stretches between the two parks of Ueno (north) and Shiba (south), famous for their shrines. Midway rises the castle or palace, a fine structure in Japanese style, furnished in European manner, and lighted with electricity, within a double ring of high walls and broad moats. In spring-time the city is gay with plum and cherry blossoms. The immense enclosures, formerly inhabited by the nobles and their retainers, are gradually disappearing, and handsome modern buildings in brick for the use of the various government departments are taking their place. Of the fifteen city divisions the northern, Hongo and Kanda, are mostly educational, and contain the buildings of the Imperial University, Law School and other institutions. The student population is astonishingly large. The seaward districts of Nihonbashi, Kyobashi, and Asakusa are industrial and commercial, while the government offices are located in Kojimachi ku.
Yokohama is the port of entry (seventeen miles off), and a great harbor scheme to cost twenty million dollars was planned in 1911-1912. The city is subject to disastrous fires; that of April, 1892, burned four thousand houses in one morning. Tokio has three railway termini and a system of electric railways. Almost every phase of modern civilization is to be found within its vast area.
History.—Before 500 A. D. Japanese history is mere legend. Buddhism was introduced from Korea in 552; and in the next century Chinese civilization strongly influenced Japan. About the end of the twelfth century, the weakness of the emperor led the military head (Shogun) to assume a large share of the supreme power, and he handed it on to his descendants. Hence the statement often made that Japan had a Mikado or spiritual emperor who reigned but did not govern, and a “Tycoon” (Shogun) who did govern though he paid homage to the nominal sovereign. The military caste was now dominant until the reign of Iyeyasu (c. 1600), whose descendants reigned till 1868.
Total exclusion of foreigners was the rule till 1543, when the Portuguese effected a settlement; but in 1624 all foreigners were expelled and Christianity interdicted. The policy of isolation was rigidly pursued from 1638 till 1853, when Commodore Perry of the United States Navy steamed into a Japanese harbor, and effected a treaty with the Shogun. Soon sixteen other nations followed the American example, and free ports were opened to foreign commerce.
In 1867-1868 a sharp civil war broke the feudal power of the daimios or territorial magnates, suppressed the Shogunate, and unified the authority under the Mikado. In a very few years Japanese students took a place of their own in western science; and how thoroughly the Japanese had laid to heart what they had learned abroad in the military and naval arts was partially revealed by the swift and complete success of the war with China about Korea in 1894, and more impressively by their amazing triumph over the great military empire of Russia, in 1904-1905, whom they defeated in a succession of bloody battles, took Port Arthur, and utterly destroyed the Russian fleet. By the peace that followed the Russians not only evacuated southern Manchuria, but recognized Japan’s preponderance in Korea, and gave up to Japan the “leases” of Port Arthur and the Liao-tung peninsula Russia had wrested from China.