The establishment of the Japanese constitutional system

"When it was first published in Japan, The Establishment of the Japanese Constitutional System was immediately recognised by modern Japanese historians as a work of acute and original analysis. Based largely on contemporary documents, diaries and letters, it provides an invaluable background to understanding the nature of relations between parliament, bureaucrats and leaders of political cliques in Japan, relations which persist to this day."--BOOK JACKET. "The Establishment of the Japanese Constitutional System is an authoritative account of the establishment of constitutional government in Japan during the turbulent decade of the 1890s. An intensely 'political' story, full of power struggles and the clash of interests, it tells how political experience was accumulated by government leaders and party politicians in these formative years."--BOOK JACKET.^ "Between 1868 and 1890 the Meiji government wielded despotic power, and was able to pursue its military and industrial policies virtually unchallenged. After the Diet was established, however, the government found its policies challenged by the 'popular parties' which demanded that government expenditure and the burden of tax on farmers be decreased. Junji Banno shows how, unexpectedly, the popular parties discovered in the constitution the means of challenging the government and, although unable to win power themselves, they found they were well able to force a stalemate. By 1900, however, one of the popular parties had given up its demand for tax reduction and begun to support the government policy of industrialisation, while one faction of the government had changed its attitude towards the popular parties."--BOOK JACKET.^ "The author describes how these two factions from different sides of the political divide came together to form Rikken Seiyukai--a pragmatic political party--and explains why such a drastic change in basic attitudes took place during the first decade of Japanese parliamentary politics."--BOOK JACKET.