Shūgiin election 1890

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The Shūgiin election in 1890 was the first choice for Shūgiin , the lower house of the Japanese Reichstag. It took place on July 1, 1890 . The constitution of the Japanese Empire was to come into force on November 29, 1890. With her a Reichstag was set up from two chambers, the bourgeois Shūgiin and the noble Kizokuin (mansion / upper house), who exercised the legislature together with the Tennō . Nine days later, on July 10, 1890, the first election of the nobility among the barons, vice counts and counts ( 伯 子 男爵 議員 互 選 選 挙 , haku-shi-danshaku giin gosen sichyo ) for the Kizokuin took place.

The 300 MPs were elected by simple majority voting or by block voting ( 完全 連 記 制 , kanzen renkisei ; plurality-at-large voting ) in so-called “small constituencies”. In 1890 there were 214 single and 43 two- seat constituencies in 45 prefectures excluding Hokkaidō and Okinawa . Male Japanese citizens who paid at least 15 yen in direct tax annually had the right to vote . There were around 450,000 eligible voters, which was around 1.1% of the total population of Japan. The vote was not secret - electoral secrecy was not incorporated into electoral law until 1900.

The government was not responsible to parliament but to the Tennō, which means that it did not have to rely on a fixed majority among the parties that formed in parliament. However, the so-called regarded Rito ( 吏党 , such "public official parties"; also 温和派 , onwa-ha "gentle [= from government view moderate] faction") as close to the government, that is, they were the dominant Meiji oligarchy from the former fiefdoms Satsuma and Chōshū close. In 1890 they were the Taiseikai ( 大成 会 ) and the small Kokumin Jiyūtō ("Liberal People's Party"). In contrast to this were the politicians of the “bourgeois parties” ( 民 党 , Mintō ), who formed in continuity with the “liberal civil rights movement” ( Jiyū Minken Undō ) and fought for constitutional rule: The Rikken Jiyūtō (“Constitutional Liberal Party ") And the Rikken Kaishintō (" Constitutional Progressive Party "), from which the largest pre-war party, the Rikken Seiyūkai , developed by the turn of the century .

Election result

Distribution of seats

The turnout was 93.73%.

Political party Seats
Taiseikai 79
Kokumin Jiyūtō ("Liberal People's Party") 5
Rikken Jiyūtō ("Constitutional Liberal Party") 130
Rikken Kaishintō ("Constitutional Progressive Party") 41
Independent 45
total 300

Effects

The new Shūgiin first met in November 1890. The first president was Nakajima Nobuyuki (Rikken Jiyūtō, constituency Kanagawa 5) elected vice president was Tsuda Mamichi (Taiseikai, constituency Tokyo 8).

Even after the bourgeois parties had won the election, the first cabinet of Prime Minister General Count Yamagata Aritomo , which had been in office since 1889 and was hostile to the political parties, continued to rule . However, from the end of 1890 there was a conflict between government and parliament over the budget, over which Yamagata resigned in May 1891 - officially for "health reasons" - and was replaced by Matsukata Masayoshi . The tension between the lower house majority and the government determined the work of parliament until the First Sino-Japanese War .

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Yamagata is the family name, Aritomo the first name.

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