The Building of the Meiji State and Constitutional Government

Was the Meiji Restoration a “Revolution” in a modern world? If so, what kind of revolution was it? These questions have been debated to this day. Revolutions since the beginning of the nineteenth century have usually signified the abolition of monarchies, and monarchs have generally been unable to voluntarily implement fundamental social reforms. However, in the case of Japan, restored imperial rule (government by the imperial court) served as the axis for modern reforms when the new government opened up Japan, immediately implemented modern reforms, and built a centralized constitutional state. Such a turn of events is uncommon in world history. While the Japanese parliamentary system, which is at the core of the country’s constitutional system, risked collapse on several occasions, it has remained intact to this day. Instead of a discussion of whether the Meiji Restoration was a revolution, this paper focuses on why a constitutional system of government - parliamentarism - was adopted as one of the outcomes of that “revolution” and took hold in Japan, and discusses the operational features it had.articl