2-7. A Gift from the Emperor

History Accounts

The statistical evidence from Japan for the 1870 to 1890 period bears out the extent of her modernization. By any measure, railroad trackage, coal production or use, or miles of telegraph or telephone wires installed, Japan had vastly grown.
In February 1889, the Meiji Emperor presented to the Japanese people its written constitution. It enshrined the Emperor's sovereignty and political and cultural role. It created a bi-cameral legislative body called a Diet. The document also importantly declared the citizens' basic civil rights such as religion, speech, and due process among many others.
The elections to the new Diet in both 1890 and 1892, installed lower house representatives antagonistic to the executive branch and the elites. Eventually the sides found common ground and made the new constitution work.

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