During the five years from 1884 and 1:•:5, Marquis Ito had personally directed the work of the committee and drawn up the draft, which was submitted to the emperor for his approval. In the spring of 1888 the Emperor organized the Privy Council, and opened the meetings to deliberate upon the draft of the Constitution. The first meeting was held in May, and con tinued until January 1889, and was presided over by His Imperial Majesty in person, who attended every session of the council. After a close deliberation of nine months, the Con stitution was promulgated by the Emperor in person 11 Feb. 1889, with solemn and gorgeous ceremony, in the throne room of the Imperial Palace, attended by the imperial families, min isters of state, privy councillors, foreign dip lomatic corps, all high officials, and governors and representatives of provinces, and its proc lamation was followed by national rejoicings and festivities.
Thus the movement for constitutional gov ernment in Japan began at first with the im perial oath of 1868, and was continued in re modelling a political mechanism for a long duration of 23 years, and finally completed by separating the government into the three branches of Executive, Legislative and Judi ciary, which are acknowledged principles of constitutional government in Europe and America.
But there is an important difference between the constitution of the Western nations and that of Japan. The constitutions of England and the continent of Europe are really the out come of a popular uprising against the tyranny of rulers; in other words, constitutional gov ernment was demanded and established as the natural right of the people. Consequently even the constitutions of monarchial Europe were drawn up in such a way as to put the greatest stress and importance upon the popular right, and at the same time the power of the sov ereign was curtailed as much as possible. The constitutional history of Europe and America is a protest against the encroachment of the sovereign upon popular rights; but the Japan ese Constitution emanated from the emperor— fountain of power—and not from the popular right, as clearly stated in the imperial oath. Before the people ever dreamed of a popular right or a Parliament, the emperor had al ready marked out the policy of constitutional government in future, because his ardent de sire was to elevate his country so as to enable it to take rank among the civilized nations of the West; and this is not only his wish, but is in strict accordance with a national policy be queathed by his imperial ancestors.
Following this national policy, the Consti tution was drawn up with strict adherence to, and in preservation of, the traditional history of Japan and the fundamental principle of the imperial government for 2,500 years, However, the form of the Japanese Constitution is prac tically the same as those of Europe and Amer ica; but with this difference, that the texts of the Japanese Constitution contain only the fundamental principle of state; that is to say, the prerogative of emperor, rights and du ties of people, powers of Parliament,_powers and duties of ministers of state and privy councillors, and judiciary and finance. All
these are embodied only in the 76 articles of the Constitution.
Here we naturally meet a question—how can the national affairs be administered under only 76 articles? When, however, we examine the Japanese Constitution minutely, we find that it was drawn up so as to separate as many articles as relate to °Rules and Proceedings of Parliament,* gThe Laws of the Election of Members of Parliament,* and "The National Budget,* and these are embodied in the sup plementary laws of the Constitution, and en acted at the same time. Why was such a sepa ration necessary? Because when a first Parlia ment is opened, the government as well as the members, in discussing national affairs, might find it necessary to make some changes in the articles therein. If such a change affect the text in the Constitution, it might afford a good opportunity for some unscrupulous politician to try to change the fundamental principle, and even if he failed in his attempt, it could cer tainly lessen the weight of the Constitution, but if these articles are separated from the consti tutional text, then they can be easily changed and amended so as to meet any need.
This is particularly so in regard to *The Laws of the Election of Members to the Parlia ment,* because the qualifications of members and many details connected with the election must be modified from time to time so as to meet the future requirements of the progress of people and the change of national conditions ,• as was done in 1900 when the law was modified to meet the requirements in regard to the quali fications of electors and candidates.
The Japanese Constitution is divided into seven chapters, comprehending 76 articles : Chapter I relates to the Emperor; Chapter II to the Rights and Duties of the Subjects; Chapter III to.the Imperial Parliament; Chap ter IV to the Minister of State and Privy Coun cil; Chapter V to the Judicature; Chapter VI to the Finances; Chapter VII to the Supple mentary Rules.