Itagaki Taisuke and Goto Shojiro, ex-samurai from Tosa, were the leading activists. Ueki Emori and Nakae Chomin were the people who provided the theoretical underpinnings for the movement. The latter two were theorists who were from Tosa, as well. They embraced the Natural Rights theory and positivism of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and J.S. Mill.

Nakae Chomin had studied French legal and political thought and absorbed some of the language and principles from the French Revolution. He had traveled with the Iwakura Mission as a student; he also studied French language in both Nagasaki and Edo. He worked for the governmetn for a while but was frustrated by the lack of progress towards implementing a constitution. He translated Rousseau's Social Contract into Japanese and along with Saionji Kinmochi, a court noble who had also studied in France, he edited a paper called the Asian Liberal Press though it was banned early on.

Ueki Emori was also a thorough-going Natural Rights believer. He drew upon Locke, John Stuart Mill and Rousseau. As originally stated by John Locke (1632-1704), the Natural Rights theory argues that God created people free and equal in the state of nature and that, in this condition, no one is naturally sovereign over anyone else. In view of this natural equality, Locke maintains that it is a law of nature that no one should harm another person's life, health, liberty or possessions:

The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges everyone: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions [Second Treatise of Government, 2:6]

In other words, this view holds that individuals, because they are natural beings, have rights that cannot be violated by anyone or by any society. Rousseau, in his writings, developed the idea of the Social Contract which was also the title of one of his books. It opens with the lines:

Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they.

The book's catchphrases 'Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite', inspired the French Revolution. Rousseau argues that only by surrendering to the general will, can an individual find his fullest freedom. The general will, essentially directed toward common good, Rousseau believed, is always right. The citizens of a united community exchanges their natural liberty for something better, moral liberty. In this theory political society is seen as involving the total voluntary subjection of every individual to the collective general will; this being both the sole source of legitimate sovereignty and something that cannot but be directed towards common good.

Natural rights were never better articulated than by the American, Thomas Paine:

Natural rights are those which appertain to man in right of his existence. Of this kind are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness. . .Every civil right has for its foundation some natural right, pre-existing in the individual, but to the enjoyment of which his individual power is not, in all cases, sufficiently competent. Of this kind are all those which relate to security and protection. . . .

The natural rights which [man] retains [in society] are all those in which the power to execute it is as perfect in the individual as the right itself. Among this class, as is before mentioned, are all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind; consequently religion is one of those rights.

So, in other words, theorists like Ueki and Nakae, with their enthusiasm for French thought, supported the idea that basic human rights are inherent to human beings. Ueki even supported the idea of rights for women.

Of course, the idea of having some kind of representative government dated back at least as far as the Charter Oath ("Deliberative assemblies shall be widely convoked. . ."), or even back to Sakamoto Ryoma’s 8-Point Plan. Early in the 1870s, Kido Koin (aka Takayoshi) of Choshu, who had drafted the Charter Oath, pointed out that Japan would never be able to revise the unequal treaties and achieve parity with the west unless Japan ceased to be a place where men exercised power arbitrarily and instead governed with rational laws and popular institutions. The west’s strength was rooted in the power that the people of these countries gave to their government in the form of popular support. He believed Japan should also harness this kind of energy and without a working constitution, it would not be possible to really unify Japan internally. Even Okubo Toshimichi accepted the notion that a carefully limited and circumscribed constitutional monarchy could help "establish harmony between the ruler and the people." In 1874 Itagaki and Goto submitted a petition to the government, after they had resigned from the government over the outcome of the deliberations about invading Korea, in which they noted that:

...adminsitration is conducted in an arbitrtary maner; rewards and punishments are prompted by partiality, the channel by which the people should communicate with the government is blocked so they cannot state their grievances...

The people whose duty it is to pay taxes to the goverenment possess the right of sharing in their government's affairs and of approving or condemning....How is the government to be made strong? It is by the people of the empire becoming of one mind....

So, representation was an inherent right of those who pay the taxes but there is also a pragmatic consideration: creating a system of representative government is a way to unify the nation, to bring government and governed together so they can become of one mind. Their critique, we might, incorporates some vesitiges of the earlier critique of the Bakufu for being too narrowly based and not incorporating more voices and more actors in public discourse. Things must have felt much in 1874 to those not part of the Sat-Cho inner circle. In 1875, Kido, Ito and Okubo met with Itagaki in Osaka for the Osaka Conference because the Liberal Party Movement was growing rapidly. It was a force to contend with. They sought to mollify Itagaki by creating a Chamber of Elders to deliberate upon a constitution and to periodically convene an Assembly of Prefectural Governors, and also by offering him a government position so he might rejoin the leadership group. He did for a while but soon grew frustrated and quit again.

In the long run, Itagaki's progressive approach was too liberal for many of the Oligarchs who could only embrace the most gradual and limited approach to constitutional government—and nothing should be done to fundamentally modify the national polity; whatever is done must be done in an orderly fashion.

Private citizens were not willing to be so patient. They inaugurated the jiyu-minken undo, or the movement of popualr rights and freedoms.

The Popular Rights Movement was responsibile for focusing attention on the issues of political freedoms and individual rights, as well as upon the theory and practice of representative government. The former domain of Tosa was a genuine center for popular rights activists including two of the leading therists, Nakae Chomin who translated many works from French, including Rousseau's Social Contract, and Ueki Emori who offered up his own version of a liberal constitution.

Born in November 1847, Nakae Chomin was raised in Kochi, a castle town on the island of Shikoku, in a manner befitting a son of the lowest rank of foot soldier (ashigaru).  Attending the local lord's academy, Nakae was given a classical education, first, in the Chu Hsl school of Confucianism (called Shushigaku in Japan) and later in that of Wang Yang-ming (Yomeigaku). Like many in the regions most immediately affected by the end of Japan's two and a half centuries of isolation, Nakae also learned some Dutch and a smattering of English. In 1865, after inheriting his father's samurai status, he was sent to Nagasaki and later to Edo to study French. Expelled from Murakami Eishun's academy because of his predilection for prostitutes, he continued his language training in Yokohama under the tutelage of a Catholic priest. That led to his eventual appointment as an interpreter for the French envoy, Leon Roches, which in turn earned him a position as a low-level official in the Ministry of Justice. In the latter capacity he was assigned in 1871 to a diplomatic mission which, under the direction of Iwakura Tomomi, initiated contact with the French government during the early days of the Third Republic. Taking to heart the 1868 Charter Oath's injunction to "break through uncivilized customs of former times" and to seek "intellect and learning throughout the world," Nakae devoted his energies while in Paris and Lyon to an exploration of the texts of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Mirabeau, Condorcet, Laboulaye, and Naquet.

Returning to Japan in 1874, Nakae accepted a position as head of the Tokyo Gaikokugo Gakko (Tokyo Foreign Language School) and, shortly
thereafter, as secretary to the commission created by the Genroin to translate Edouard-Juliean Laferriere's Constitutions d 'Europe et d'Amerique. He resigned from the former after three months when his proposal to reinstate Confucian texts within the public school curriculum was rejected by the Minister of Education, and from the latter in 1877 as a result of a dispute with Mutsu Munemitsu who, among other offenses, had ordered Nakae to cease work on a second translation of the Social Contract. Soon frustrated by his political inactivity but loath to endure another government appointment, Nakae in 1880 joined forces with a court noble, Saionji Kimmochi, in launching the Toyo jiyu shimbun (Oriental Free Press). Threatened by this paper's vigorous defense of popular rights, the Meiji government secured an imperial edict commanding resignation of Nakae's co-editor. Not so easily thwarted, Nakae turned to publication of his own magazine, Seito sodan (Political and Moral Science Review), whose announced purpose was to "translate theories regarding the political ethics of the great Powers of Europe and America, and to explain in a simple manner the true principles of liberty and rights of the state and individual." Its inaugural issue opened with a translation of the "Declaration of the Rights of Man," and the second included the first installment of Nakae's new translation of Rousseau, along with notes suggesting its relevance for contemporary Japan." (Taken from an article by Timothy V. Kaufman-Osborn in Political Theory, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Feb., 1992), pp. 53-85.)

Ueki Emori (植木 枝盛, February 14, 1857 – January 23, 1892) was a Japanese revolutionary democrat active in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement. Ueki was the son of a middle ranking samurai from Tosa. Inspired by Itagaki Taisuke, he became involved in the Jiyūtō. In 1875 he was thrown in jail under the Newspaper Act for writing an article critical of the government. Upon release he wrote an article Freedom is worth purchasing with one's own blood. In 1881 he wrote A Private Draft of the Japanese Constitution, which gave provision for the overthrow of oppressive government.[1] (From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ueki_Emori)

In 1882 Ueki visited Fukushima in August and September at the invitation of the Fukushima Jiyūtō branch to help set up the Fukushima Jiyū Shimbun the local party newspaper, before returning to Tokyo to replace Baba Tatsui on the central party newspaper Jiyū Shimbun. At the convention of the League for Establishing a National Assembly held in November 1880 (Meiji 13), each of the participating organizations was asked to develop a proposal for a constitution. The Risshisha, which had a leading role in the League, also initiated the drafting of a draft constitution. The "Toyo Dai-Nippon National Constitution Proposal" was drawn up by UEKI Emori, a member of Risshisha's constitutional drafting committee. While positioning the Emperor as the head of the military and diplomacy, it also prized regional autonomy, envisioning a nation modeled after a federal system such as that of the United States or Switzerland. It also envisioned the development of a governing system centered on a national assembly, ascribing the power of legislation to the entire populace. It also went into painstaking detail about people's right to freedom, recognizing their right to protest and revolt as a means to guarantee that freedom. Given those characteristics, UEKI's proposed constitution demonstrates a liberal and democratic nature. (http://www.ndl.go.jp/modern/e/cha1/description14.html)

The movement also witness the creation of Japan's earliest political "parties," organizations that functioned as pressure groups which ultimately expedited the adoption of constitutional government in Japan. As enthusiasm for the movement swept Japan, key works like J.S. Mill's On Liberty and Rousseau's Social Contract were translated into Japanese and enjoyed a wide readership. We now know that villagers throughout Japan had at least heard of the ideas found in these types of works, and in some cases, even though they may not have acquired much direct knowledge of western political theory, villagers experimented with drafting constitutions on their own. MCCalin notes that at least 320 copies of such locally drafted constitutions by ordinary villagers are known to exist. (189)

However, the movement was also brutally suppressed by reactionaries like Provincial Governor Mishima Michitsune (who was fictionalized by Enchi Fumiko in her novel, The Waiting Years--for a brief description on literature in late Meiji, click here). During the mid-1880s, in particular, there were violent episodes such as in Chichibu (Saitama Prefecture)--where the government arrested 3,000 violent protestors and hanged five of the leaders. For example, in 1882, the Liberal party of Fukushima, led by Kono Hironaka, tried to protest Mishima's "despotic rule," and he responded with force convicting Kono of treason and sentencing him to a long prison term while arresting the rest of the party membership. When radicals responded by hatching a plot to assasinate Mishima, and issued a revolutionary manifesto from Mt. Kaba in neighboring Ibaraki Prefecture, they were attacked by Mishima's troops. One rebel died in the fighting and seven others were hanged. Many others were jailed.

At the same time, this kind of violence created fissures in the movement as the interests of the landlord class began to be differentiated from the poorer peasants who flocked to "debtor" parties and poor people's parties. Nevertheless, as Peter Duus notes, "Even within the constraints imposed by repressive legislation, the movement had battled the government in the public arena, attempting to mobilize popular support and change public opinion through pamphlets, newspapers and other publications, or by confrontational tactics in local assembles. The movement thus established a robust tradition of peaceful opposition to the state, very different from the peasant uprisings of the late Tokugawa period or the samurai violence of the 1870s. It shaped a new political culture in which the government had to telerate some degree of dissent." (114) But, on the down side, after the state really cracked down on the popular rights movement, the base and the leadership were intimidated and the party voted to dissolve in 1884.

Who were some of the major players in this movement? Let us recall who the young samurai were who formed the early Meiji Government, constituting the Dajokan, or Council of State:

From Satsuma:

Okubo Toshimichi (1830-1878)
Saigo Takamori (1828-1877)
Matsukata Masayoshi ((1837-1924)

 

From Choshu:

Kido Koin (1833-1877)
Ito Hirobumi (1841-1909)
Inoue Kaoru (1835-1915)
Yamagata Aritomo (1833-1871)

From Tosa:

Itagaki Taisuke (1837-1919)
Goto Shojiro (1837-1897)
Sakamoto Ryoma (1835-1867)

From Hizen:

Eto Shimpei (1834-1874)
Okuma Shigenobu (1838-1922)

 

One of the things the Popular Rights Movement began to do was criticize how the government was constituted by calling it hanbatsu or government by "clique" (batsu) based on certain han (4): Sat-Cho-To-Hi, but especially Sat-Cho.

As we know, the first generation of leaders, Okubo, Saigo, Kido were all dead by 1878. They were succeeded by the likes of Ito Hirobumi, Yamagata Aritomo and Matsukata Masayoshi. Yamagata gravitated to Army and police powers while Ito seemed to handle the civilian bureaucracy and politics. Itagaki and Goto from Tosa had left the government in 1873 over the Korean issue and started to form political organizations in Tosa which became the springboard for the whole PRM. Okuma Shigenobu from Hizen was a bit of an outsider, but he was a Councillor and actually served as Finance Minister. He was succeeded by Matsukata Masayoshi from Satsuma.

The Popular Rights Movement, or Jiyuminken undo, therefore, helped create a context for and helped to precipitate the

Political Crisis of 1881

In which the Jiyuto or Liberal Party, the Tosa-based party formed by Itagaki Taisuke was formed based on French philosphy and natural rights theory. Most of their political base was rural, well-to do-landlords, sake brewers, small manufacturers and landholders who were liable for the brunt of Meiji Japan's tax burden.

Meanwhile Okuma, the Finance Minister, who favored or more British form of parliamentary government, created a second party, the Kaishinto or Progressive party. It tended to be more urban, to draw its supporters from intellectuals, magazine and newspaper editors, and had many adherents from Fukuzawa Yukichi's Keio Academy. These people believed that the best and the brightest did not have to go into government service necessarily, but shoud, in fact, be independent, progressive entreprenuerial and intellectual types. The crisis occurred when Ito asked all the Councillors to submit their opinion on the idea of a constitution and representative government. Most did so and agreed that having a constitution and an assembly was a decent idea, but it should come about gradually because the people were not ready. Okuma rocked the boat by handing in his opinion last, ands his draft was much more radical than the others. Following the British system of majority rule based on party majority in the lower house, he called for an almost immediate implementation of a constitution, a legislative assemby, and a cabinet system based on the British model of a "responsible" cabinet, i.e., it would fall when given a vote of no-confidence by the legislature. This, by everyone else's standard, was radical. Okuma was fired and replaced as Finance Minister by Matsukata.

Ito announced a constitution would be drafted and granted within the decade, which it was. But the system it created bore little resemblance to the British model, favoring instead the Prussian example which severely curtailed the power of the people and their representatives in favor of the executive and the monarch.

This crisis, then, ushered in an

Era of Conflict: Parties v. Oligarchy

Parties opposed "clique" government

Yamagata's approach was to just dissolve the Diet, call an election and use muscle

But this approach could not be sutained. so...

Ito forms own party, the Seiyukai 1900

Parties begin to build their electoral base v. "politics of protest"

e.g., Hara Kei recruited to head and build up the party

recruited "up and coming bureaucrats"

Saionji-Katsura Era of Compromise1905-1912

Prime Minister's office could be handed back and forth between Seiyukai Cabinet and a Yamagata protoge without needing to rely on the Genro.

Some other visions for Meiji Japan

Christian Writers and Activists

Niijima Jo (Amherst)------>Doshisha University (Kyoto)

                            The Kumamoto Band

Ebina Danjo (1856-1937) clergyman              

Tokutomi Soho (1863-1957)        Tokutomi Roka (1868-1927)

              (journalist, author)                             (novelist)

Youth of the New Japan (1885)                   Footprints in the Snow

--attacked "old men" of Tempo v. Meiji Youth who own the future

--Meiji Restoration had failed to bring about a spiritual rebirth of a new Japan

The Future of Japan (1886) -->Tokyo forms the Minyusha (Friends of the People)

publishes a journal modeled on The Nation, Kokumin no Tomo / The Nation's Friend

 

Born in 1863 to a wealthy rural (goshi) family in southwestern Kyushu, Soho was instructed early in the duties of public service expected of Tokutomi heirs. Much of his childhood training was devoted to Western studies, including stints under Leroy Lansing Janes in Kumamoto and Niijima Jo at Doshisha. A part of the Kumamoto Band, young devotees who defied their parents and han officials by converting on Christianity on top of Mt. Hanaoka in Kumamoto, Confucian traditions probably played a less significant role in his later philosophical evolution that they did in the thought of many of Meiji Japan's early enlighteners. Following four years as a teacher and publicist in Kumamoto, the 23-year-old Soho moved to Tokyo where he launched Japan's first sogo zasshi ('composite journal', Kokumin no Tomo, in order to espouse his deep-seated belief in individual rights. His calls for the 'prosperity, freedom and happiness' of all people- even those who 'live in humble cottages' made the magazine an instant success and launched Soho's controversial career. After a decade as a proponent of 'liberal', bitterly anti-government views, Tokutomi turned conservative in the mid-1890s; he began to call for national expansion and his concern for the individual was replaced by an increasingly strident advocacy of statism, militarism, and imperialism. Moreover, he joined the once-despised establishment after the Sino-Japanese War, working directly for politicians such as Matsukata Masayoshi and Katsura Taro, even while suffering several periods of public scorn as a traitor and turncoat.

This group was "opposed" by the likes of Miyake Setsurei (1860-1945), Shiga Shigetaka (1863-1927), and Kuga Katsunan (1857-1907) who favored roots and national identity;

--formed their group called the Seikyosha

--published their newspaper, Nihonjin

--they did not want the baby thrown out with the bathwater

Kitamura Tokoku (1868-1894)        (literature, romanticism, the inner life = the modern self explored)

Shimada Saburo (1852-1923) newspaper editor

Sapporo:   Uchimura Kanzo (teacher)

                     Nitobe Inazo (educator, author-- Bushido)

Tokyo University:

Yoshino Sakuzo (1878-1933)　Active with Abe and Ebina in Christian circles

-- New Man Society (Shinjnkai, 新人会, 1918)

--Minponshugi (民本主義)

 

Socialist Party Founders/Social Activists

Abe Iso                 Nishikawa Kojiro               Kinoshita Naoe         

(student of Niijima)                                 (activist, novelist)

                            Sakai Toshihiko (1870-1933), Katayama Sen (1859-1933)

*******************

Journalists, Social Activists:

Yokoyama Gennosuke (1871- 1915) journalist, exposing "darkest Tokyo"(see McClain pp. 254-55)

Gonda Yasunosuke (1887-1951)--inspired by Abe Iso and anarchist thinker Osugi Sakae, studied German and Tokyo Gaidai (School of Foreign Languages) conducted studies of modern everyday life by gathering statsitics and interviewing people--cafes, movies, etc. Believed in studying how the modern industrial proletariat and middle class undertook entertainment

Taoka Reiun (1870-1912) Cultural and Literary Critic: The case for “Anti-modernism” ( Hibunmei ) and the case for the Poor

--the call for socially conscious literature = make poverty and discrimination the subject of literature

--the call to question 19th western "civilization," i.e., modernity itself

--the call for a Women's Libration Movement

--in the rush to modernize, do not overlook the great Asian traditions: Lao-tzu, Chuang-tzu, the Vedas, the Upanishads

--an "Orientalist" in the best sense

Labor Organizers/Advocates for the Poor:

Kagawa Toyohiko (1888-1960)               Suzuki Bunji (1885-1946)

Hosoi Wakizo (1897-1925), investigated conditions in textile mills, wrote a classic study based on his findings, Joko aishi (Sad History of Textile Workers); it is still available in an inexpensive paperback version. Ch. 3 in Telling Lives is the story of his common-law wife/widow, Takai Toshio.

 

Non-Christian Socialists/Anarchists:

Sakai Toshihiko (1870-1933) -- translates The Communist Manifesto co-founds JCP    

Kotoku Shusui (1871-1911) socialist/anarchist thinker, hanged 1911 on the occasion of the the High Treason Incident 1910-11which was a plot to throw a bomb at the carriage of the Meiji emperor. Many arrested, some 26 brought to trial; trial held behind close doors; 24 sentenced to death. An Imperial Rescript the next day commuted 12 of the death sentences to life; 12 were executed: 11 men including Kotoku Shusui and his common-law wife, the only woman sentenced, Kanno Suga. This incident was said to have ushered in the "Winter" of socialist activities.

A story goes that novelist Tokutomi Roka (Soho's younger brother), invited to speak at the prestigious Peer's School the day the news of Kotosku's hanging broke, when asked what he would speak about he wrote two characters in the sand--謀反--meaning "rebellion" or "revolution"--which was an indication of how upset he was to hear the news of Kotoku's execution. His remarks in defense of Kotoku created something of a scandal.

 

Kawakami Hajime from Buddhist to Marxist Economist, a professor at Kyoto Imperial University author of Bimbo monogatari (Tales of Poverty) 1917

 

 

 

Gen. Terauchi, declined (Choshu) as did Matsukata (Satsuma) and then Admiral Yamamoto (Choshu)

So, Katsura Taro, Army General, was chosen

When Navy tried to hold out for new battleships, Katsura got an Imperial Rescript ordering Navy to furnish a minister; perceived as "undemocratic," critics reacted strongly

The League for Protection of Constitution organizes mass rallies v. Katsura

He could not win an election so when a No-Confidence motion called for, he used another Imperial Rescript to prorogue the Diet for 15 days.

Katsura forms his own party, Doshikai 1913

which evolves into Kenseikai

headed by Kato Komei

later called the Minseito

When Diet met again after the recess, Katsura was questioned bout the source of his rescript--he replied that it was "too sacred to discuss." This was when Ozaki Koyo made his famous speech in the Diet

They always mouth "loyalty" and "patriotism" but what they are actually doing is to hide themselves behind the Throne, and shoot at their political enemies from their secure ambush. The Throne is their rampart. Rescripts are their missiles.

Era of "Normal Course of Constitutional Government"

BUT, Hara assassinated in 1921-------> 3 "Transcendental Cabinet

Seiyukai was in Power 1927-29 while the Kenseikai was in Power 1925-26

(UMS = quadruples size of electorate) (PPL = outlaws anti-kokutai ideology)

Growth of Leftwing groups and Proletarian Parties:

From: http://ic.ucsc.edu/~naso/hist159b/presentations/taisho%20democracy%20pres/parties_on_the_left.htm

A very serious political incident occurrred in the early 1900s surrounding Japan's first major pollution disaster, the Ashio Mine Incident. See the detailed article listed on the syllabus, plus a book review of a Japanese study of the incident recently translated into English.