Directory_and_Chronicle_1930 — Page 467

JAPAN

CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT

The government of the Japanese Empire was anciently, in theory at least, that of an absolute monarchy, but the real administrative and executive power was in the hands of the Shogun and his clansmen. In the year 1868 the Imperialist party over- threw, after a short war, the power of the Shogun, together with that of the Daimios, or feudal nobles, who, on the 25th June, 1869, resigned their lands, revenues, and retainers to the Mikado, by whom they were permitted to retain one-tenth of their original incomes, but ordered to reside in the capital in future. The sovereign now bears the name of Emperor.

Hirohito, the reigning monarch, succeeded to the throne in December, 1927, and the coronation ceremonies were performed in Kyoto in November, 1928. His Majesty is twenty-six years of age and is, according to Japanese chronology partly mythical, the 124th of an unbroken dynasty, founded 660 B.C.

The power of the Mikado was formerly absolute, but its exercise was controlled to some extent by custom and public opinion. The Emperor Mutsuhito, in 1875, when the Senate and Supreme Judicial Tribunal were founded, solemnly declared his earnest desire to have a constitutional system of government. The Mikado has long been regarded as the spiritual as well as the temporal head of the Empire, but, although the Shinto faith is held to be a form of national religion, the Emperor does not interfere in religious mat- ters, and all religions are tolerated in Japan. The Ecclesiastical Department was in 1877 reduced to a simple bureau under the control of the Minister of the Interior. The Emperor acts through an Executive Ministry divided into eleven departments, -Gwaimu Sho (Foreign Affairs), Naimu Sho (Interior), Okura Sho (Finance), Kaigun Shio (Navy), Rikugun Sho (Army), Shiho Sho (Justice), Mombu Sho (Education), Norin Sho Agriculture and Forestry), Shoko Sho (Commerce and Industry), Teishin Sho (Com- munications) and Tetsudo-sho (Railways). In 1888 a Privy Council, modelled on that of Great Britain, was constituted. The new Constitution, promised by the Mikado, was proclaimed on the 11th February, 1889, and in July, 1890, the first Parliament was elected; it met on the 29th November. The Parliamentary system is bicameral, the House of Peers and the House of Representatives constituting the Imperial Diet.

The Empire is divided for adininistrative purposes into three Fu, or urban prefectures (Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka), and 43 Ken, or prefectures, including the Loochoo Islands, which have been converted into a ken and named Okinawa. The island of Yezo is under a separate administration called Hokkaido-cho, so also is Chosen (the name Japan has given to the Kingdom of Corea, which she formally annexed in 1910), but Formosa is governed as a colony, and the same may also be said of the Kwantung Province of Manchuria, which Japan acquired after the war with Russia. The fu and ken are governed by prefects, who are all of equal rank, are under the control of the Ministry of the Interior and have limited powers, being required to submit every matter, unless there is a precedent for it, to the Minister of the Interior. Nor have they any concern in judicial proceedings, which come under the cognizance of the 48 local Courts and the seven Supreme Courts at Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Nagasaki Miyagi, and Hakodate, over which the Daishin-In presides at Tokyo.

Previous to the last change of Government, which restored the ancient Imperial régime, the administrative authority rested with the Shogun (Military Commander), whom foreigners were at first led to recognise as the temporal sovereign, and with whom they negotiated treaties of peace and commerce. The Shogunate was founded in 1184 by Yoritomo, a general of great valour and ability, and was continued through several dynasties until 1868, when the Tokugawa family were dispossessed of the usurped authority. Under the Shogun 300 or more Daimios (feudal princes) shared the administrative power, being practically supreme in their respective domains conditionally upon their loyalty to the Shogun; but their rank and power disappeared with the Shogunate. On the 7th July, 1884, however, His Majesty issued an Imperial Notification and Rescript rehabilitating the nobility, and admitting to its ranks the most