Constitutional Reform Party

Constitutional Reform Party
Rikken Kaishinto
Party presidency ( sōri)	Ōkuma Shigenobu
founding	April 16, 1882
resolution	March 1896

The Constitutional reformers Party ( 立憲改進党 , before writing reform 立憲改進黨 , Rikken Kaishintō shortly Kaishintō ; English Constitutional Reform Party , also Constitutional Progressive Party ) was a political party in the Japanese Empire in the Meiji period .

history

The Constitutional Reform Party was founded on April 16, 1882 by Ōkuma Shigenobu with the support of Yano Ryūsuke, Inukai Tsuyoshi and Ozaki Yukio . The party received financial backing from Mitsubishi Zaibatsu and received strong support from the Japanese press and urban intellectuals.

The Constitutional reformers party pursued a moderate approach, calling for a constitutional monarchy after the British style in a parliamentary democracy . In a speech given by Ōkuma at the inauguration of the party, he emphasized the symbolic role of the monarch in the type of government he sought. He also argued that those extremists who campaigned for the emperor to be directly involved in political decision-making were in reality jeopardizing the very existence of the imperial institution.

In the first House election in 1890 , the party won 41 seats in the House of Representatives , the lower house of the Japanese Reichstag , making it the third largest party.

After that, the Constitutional Reform Party introduced an increasingly nationalist foreign policy and in March 1896 merged with several smaller nationalist parties to form the Progress Party .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Marius B. Jansen: The Making of Modern Japan . Harvard University Press , Cambridge 2000, ISBN 978-0-674-00334-7 .
2. ^ Richard Sims: Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation 1868-2000 . Palgrave Macmillan , New York 2001, ISBN 978-0-312-23914-5 , pp. 57 .
3. ↑ Donald Keene: Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912 . Columbia University Press , New York 2002, ISBN 978-0-231-12340-2 .