1. The drafting of the Meiji Constitution.

The Meiji Constitution was the product of a number of Japanese statesmen who themselves did not totally agree on everything about Japan's future. These statesmen were called the genro (elderly statesmen), former prominent samurai who had assisted the Meiji emperor in his restoration of power. They worked in the emperor's Privy Council or served as cabinet ministers in the newly created Diet (which consisted of a House of Peers (aristocrats), a House of Representatives, and a cabinet). Their views ranged from a British style constitutional monarchy (which would give Japan a fairly liberal government), to an emperor with all encompassing power. The final product of the constitution was not only the result of compromise between the conservatives and liberals among the genro, but also the more liberal elements' reactions to the political movements of the people. Following the government's announcement that a constitutional government was to be established upon the Meiji Restoration, there were heated discussions in local political clubs and mass petitions for rapid establishment of representative government. The conservative backlash at the Popular Rights Movement created great pressure for the more liberal genro to move more to the right than they would have otherwise.

2. The role of the emperor in the Meiji Constitution (1889).

The Meiji constitution enabled an autocratic emperor to exist in a constitutional government. The founding fathers of modern Japan, primarily the samurai leaders from the domains of Satsuma and Choshu (the Satcho clique), did not sincerely welcome constitutional politics, but wanted to bring about a modern reform of Japan via strong policies of the emperor. Therefore the emperor was put in the paradoxical position of being a constitutional monarch and as the bestower of the constitution to the people.

The emperor's authority also rested on his ancient and "divine" lineage. One of the creations of the Meiji Restoration was State Shinto. Shintoism was the most ancient Japanese religion, close to primitive animism, that believed in the magical powers of natural objects, e.g. mountains, trees, rocks, sea, etc. Only in much recent times were emperors and imperial families worshipped as possessors of this magical power (kami). State Shinto was a branch of Shintoism developed upon the Meiji Restoration that required a unity of Rites and governance through the emperor: recognition that the emperor was one of those to be worshipped in the Shinto religion, and household registration of religious affiliation with a deity, who were all subordinated to the ancestral goddess of the imperial house, Amaterasu, the sun goddess.

The emperor in the Meiji Constitution was placed in the centre of politics (Article I) because the new government needed the traditional imperial authority to unify the nation. This emphasis on the role of the emperor, however, was an "inherent contradiction" in a constitutional government where the emperor was to be subject to the constitution like everyone else. Great pains were taken to cover up the contradictions, hence the emperor was said to work with the cabinet, the legislature, etc., but the cabinet was given little power, and the military was independent. To make the government work the genro's role was vitally important. This "informal" part of the Meiji constitution was weakened with the deaths of the genro as time went by, significantly so after 1922. After this, one of the last remaining genro Saionji Kinmochi tried to introduce the British style cabinet system by giving the cabinet more power than before. But there was no unanimous agreement in the country regarding the role of the emperor and the responsibility of the cabinet. Many continued to view the emperor as the center of politics, especially among the conservatives. The difficulty of establishing a new view giving more weight to the cabinet was compounded by that the change, such as that the emperor would approve of a decision the cabinet unanimously made, was not part of the Meiji Constitution and even when it was exercised, it did not serve the effect of informing the public that the cabinet gained more power than before.

In the 1920s, with the decline of Taisho emperor's (1912-26) political and divine clout, the Showa Emperor Hirohito tried to resurrect the power of the emperor. The Taisho emperor suffered from ill health, both physical and mental. Because of the establishment of a constitutional government that did grant the people certain rights (although it also cautioned people not to exercise them), the world was changing in Japanese politics in the 1910s and early 1920s. Peasants often complained about universal conscription. There was also public criticism of the wealth of the imperial house. There were many workers' strikes and peasants' food riots in the 1910s and 1920s, as Japan started to undergo industrialization and was experiencing some of its universal after-effects, such as long working hours, low wages, no protection of workers, and pollution. And as the Japanese government, typical of any industrializing country, used agriculture to subsidize the industrial sector. Growing democracy let to 35 incidents of lese majeste (contempt of the emperor) from 1921-27. And the number of people who joined the army to defend the emperor or who were willing to die for the emperor from 1921 to 1945 declined. Against growing democracy and the gradual dissappearance of the genro class, Emperor Hirohito became more assertive of his role as an emperor.

Another problem that the Meiji constitution would have later on was the military. Upon drawing up the constitution, the genro, reflecting back on the era of the shogunate, did not want military aristocracy to threaten the civilian government, hence their decision to have the military completely accountable only to the emperor. This would inadvertently create a situation when the military would act on its own and report back to the emperor when the imperial exploit was already accomplished, a situation unanticipated by the drafters of the Meiji Constitution.