Drafting the Meiji Constitution: How Itō Hirobumi Wrote the Blueprint of a State

On February 11, 1889 (Meiji 22), the Constitution of the Empire of Japan was promulgated. The first modern constitutional constitution in Asia, and its principal drafter was Itō Hirobumi. For the seven years from 1882 through 1889, Itō researched the constitutions of Europe, conferred with the domestic drafting team, and completed at last the blueprint of a single state. The case of one statesman writing a constitution is a rare one even in modern history.

European Constitutional Research (1882-1883)

In 1882 (Meiji 15), on the orders of the government, Itō Hirobumi traveled to Europe and spent about a year and a half on constitutional research. In the first half year he studied under Gneist at Berlin University and Stein at Vienna University, learning the constitutional monarchies of Germany and Austria directly. He at first considered the French republican constitution and the British customary-law system as well, but in view of compatibility with the Meiji-Japanese imperial system reached the conclusion that the Austro-German constitutional monarchy was optimal. Itō's choice fixed the basic structure of the later Meiji Constitution.

Formation of the Drafting Team

After his return, in 1884 (Meiji 17), Itō organized a dedicated team for drafting the constitution. The core members were Inoue Kowashi (Kumamoto-born legal scholar), Itō Miyoji (Itō Hirobumi's intimate aide), Kaneko Kentarō (with American study experience), Roesler (German legal adviser), and Mosse (German legal adviser). It was a collaboration of Japanese and foreign legal scholars to translate Itō's overall conception into specific articles. The substantive drafting of much of the text was led by Inoue Kowashi, while Itō took the overall direction and the political judgments.

Intensive Drafting at Natsushima

In the summer of 1887 (Meiji 20), the four of Itō, Inoue, Itō Miyoji, and Kaneko shut themselves up on Natsushima off Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, and produced an intensive draft of the constitution over about a month. The drafting on the island, isolated from the world, was a device for producing a draft based on purely legal reasoning, free of political pressure. The Natsushima draft, after the subsequent process of revisions, became the version promulgated in 1889. The fact that the highest law of Japan before the postwar constitution was written by four people over a single summer shows the height of the conceptual capacity of the Meiji leadership.

Promulgation and the Public Reaction

On February 11, 1889, the Constitution of the Empire of Japan was promulgated by Emperor Meiji to the people as a 'granted constitution.' The same day was Kigensetsu (the modern-day National Foundation Day), selected as the day of Emperor Jinmu's enthronement. Tokyo was wrapped in a celebratory mood, and foreign newspapers highly praised it as 'the first modern constitution in Asia.' The constitution made the emperor head of state, adopted the separation of the three powers of legislature, cabinet, and judiciary, and codified the rights and duties of subjects. The moment in which Itō Hirobumi's seven-year conception bore fruit as the basic law of the state.

Historical Evaluation of the Constitution

The Constitution of the Empire of Japan functioned as Japan's supreme law for fifty-eight years, until the Constitution of Japan came into force in 1947. As the first introduction into Japan of the basic structures of modern politics — constitutional monarchy and parliamentary government — it is regarded as the largest institutional achievement of Meiji Japan. At the same time, it also contained elements that allowed the military's unchecked actions and became the institutional foundation that supported the twentieth-century Japanese policy of external expansion. Itō Hirobumi's conception was written within the constraints of its age, but as the starting point of the political institutions of modern Japan it remains the most important object of analysis in modern constitutional and political-historical studies.

"The constitution is the foundation of the state, the thing that defines the relation between sovereign and people."