Andrew Fraser - Japans Early Parliaments, 1890-1905: Structure, Issues and Trends

The Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese
Studies Series

Editorial Board

J.A.A. Stockwin, Nissan Professor of Modern Japanese Studies, University of Oxford and Director, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies.

Teigo Yoshida, formerly Professor of the University of Tokyo, and now Professor, Obirin University, Tokyo

Frank Langdon, Professor, Institute of International Relations, University of Britsh Columbia, Canada

Alan Rix, Professor of Japanese, The University of Queensland Junji Banno, Professor, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo Leonard Schoppa, Assistant Professor, Woodrow Wilson Department of Government and Foreign Affairs, University of Virginia

Other titles in the series:

The Emperor's Adviser: Saionji Kimmochi and Pre-war Japanese Politics,

Lesley Connors

translated by J.A.A. Stockwin

Banking Policy in Japan: American Efforts at Reform During the Occupation,

William M. Tsutsui

Japan and Protection: The Growth of Protectionist Sentiment and the

The Soil, by Nagatsuka Takashi: a Portrait of Rural Life in Meiji Japan,

translated and with an introduction by Ann Waswo

Twine

Kinzley

The Japanese Numbers Game: the Use and Understanding of Numbers in

Technology and Industrial Development in Pre-War Japan, Yukiko Fukasaku

Japan's early parliaments,
1890-1905

Structure, Issues and Trends

Andrew Fraser, R.H.P. Mason
and Philip Mitchell

First published 1995
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Mitlon Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Transferred to Digital Printing 2005

1995 Andrew Fraser, R.H.P. Mason and Philip Mitchell

Typeset in Times by
Ponting-Green Publishing Services, Chesham, Bucks

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Fraser, Andrew.

Japan's early parliaments, 1890-1905: structure, issues,
and trends/Andrew Fraser, R.H.P. Mason, Philip Mitchell.
p. cm. (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese
studies series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Japan. Teikoku Gikai-History. 2. Legislative bodies
Japan-History. 3. Japan-Politics and government
1868-1912. I. Mason, R. H. P. II. Mitchell, Philip, 1961. III. Title. IV. Series.
JQ1654.F73 1995
328.52'07-dc20 9412044

ISBN 0415030757

Preface and acknowledgements

The separate chapters of this book have a varied provenance. Andrew Fraser's have been freshly written; Philip Mitchell's was originally an Honours research dissertation; and Richard Mason's are revisions of already published papers. Details of original titles and places of publication, where relevant, can be found in the Bibliography. In a significant way, too, the present volume is an outgrowth of an earlier study of the 1890 election (Mason 1969). Despite this heterogeneity, it is hoped that there is sufficient commonality of approach, style, theme and purpose to give the book more than a semblance of unity; and the Introduction and Conclusions have, of course, been composed to that end. The question of datedness hardly arises; because all the chapters have been written from primary sources, and the precise topics covered have either not been treated elsewhere or not in anything like the same detail.

And so to acknowledgements: first, on the institutional side, all three authors are or have been connected with the Australian National University, and we owe it an additional measure of thanks for a generous publication subsidy; the Japan Foundation has helped finance two research visits to Japan in the case of Mason, and Mitchell received similar aid from the AustraliaJapan Foundation; and the Oriental Society of Australia kindly gave permission for reproduction of the material on poor relief. On the directly personal side, warm thanks must go first of all to Peter Sowden of Routledge for his unflagging support through years of delay and frustration for all concerned; also to Gordon Smith and James Whiting of Routledge for all their invaluable help with getting the book actually printed and published; to Junji Banno for his learned advice so willingly given; to Arthur (J. A. A.) Stockwin for his initial and continued interest and encouragement; to the efficient and ever kind and helpful staff of the Meiji Newspaper and Magazine Archive at Tokyo University; and, finally, to a group of keyboard staff whose support was often sadly discontinuous through no fault of their own but none the less vital. Among these last special mention must be made of Ms Katrina Anne Blight, Mrs Oanh Collins, Mrs Jean Harlen and Miss Panida Thamsongsana.

The year 1990 marked the centenary of the Japanese Diet, originally known as the Great Japan Imperial Diet (Dai Nikon Teikoku Gikai), which was opened by Emperor Meiji on 29 November 1890. At the time, this event aroused great official and popular attention, along with much goodwill. Newspapers of all kinds, from about the middle of the month, were increasingly filled with lively comment and speculation. On the day itself, congratulatory telegrams poured in from the provinces, and the capital was the scene of general rejoicings as well as the Imperial procession. These included widespread street decorations and a special Diet Inauguration Concert held at the Tokyo School of Music (newspaper files; Wigmore July 1891). On occasion, the hyperbole could be taken to extremes, as the following extract from