The Meiji Constitution was a Blend of Many Conflicting Ideas

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The Meiji Constitution was a Blend of Many Conflicting Ideas

It has been said that “the Meiji Constitution of 1889 was a blend of

many conflicting ideas.” This statement is true to a great extent as

the Constitution contained a number of inconsistency and ambiguities.

As a matter of fact, it was proclaimed with the intention of solving

certain existing problems rather than giving Japan a liberal and

democratic institution. It served as a symbol of progress: appeasement

of those discontented and politically conscious; consolidation of

power of Meiji oligarchs; a cover of democracy; stimulus of Japan’s

nationalism as well as a typical example of imitation of the West, all

of which were conflicting in meaning to each other. The Meiji leaders

adopted a utilitarian approach in drafting the Constitution and they

tried to balance and reconcile these conflicting forces. In short, the

Meiji Constitution was made with the aim of killing several birds with

one stone.

The first blend of conflicting ideas was appeasement versus

symbolization, which led to the birth of the Constitution in 1889. As

early as Meiji Restoration, there was a clamor for parliamentary

government from the aggrieved and the politically conscious. The

discontented included the idle ex-samurai and indebted peasants. The

politically-conscious were merchants and educated class. The clamor

came to head the ‘People’s Right Movement’ in the 1870s. Consequently,

the Meiji Government decided to promulgate a constitution to calm down

the unrest.

However, this idea of appeasement was opposed to the idea of

necessity. Democratic institutions were considered the inevitable

c...

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... publication, public meetings

and association. However, all these rights were useless whenever it

seemed appropriate by the government. Therefore, in this blend of

conflicting ideas, Japanization formed a greater proportion.

Although the Meiji Constitution was a blend of many conflicting ideas,

it was a success for several decades. The reason for its success lied

in that: although the ideas themselves were contradictory, there was

no common ground on which they clashed, as some ideas were only

superficially meant and therefore given only the show of them, while

other ideas were seriously meant. However, the Meiji Constitution must

be a blend of conflicting ideas, it could not be purely progressive as

Japan could not change herself overnight. A blend of conservatism and

progressives was only the practical thing to do.

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