Political Japan

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 72, 18 December 1937, Page 28

Political Japan

“Though there is adult suffrage in Japan, it is suffrage for a parliament

the members of which cannot control a ministry, cannot introduce laws, have no control over financial, military or naval matters—in short, a constitution shorn of every democratic characteristic,” writes Mr. Henry John May in his book, “Little Yellow Gentlemen.” '

“The constitution of Japan requires the Ministers of the Army and Navy to be appointed from the active list of generals and admirals; without fulfilling this provision there can be no government. The fighting forces, therefore, if they do not like the composition or the policy of a cabinet, may withhold appointments to that cabinet, and the government of the country, most of which is administered by the cabinet through Imperial decrees requiring no parliamentary sanction, will thus come to a standstill. ;

“In Japan, therefore, not only is there no democratic government in the sense of control and initiative by the people, but the government of the country is controlled by the army and navy.

“The Ministers of the army and the navy have direct access to the Emperor, in Japan a very vital privilege, and the influence of the army may be found in the police, in the courts, and especially in the treasury; in the first service, because the police are of the same social strata as the army, codescendants of the same ancestors; in the courts because the police control the system of justice (a man may be held for two years without a trial in some cases) ; and in the treasury because Japau spends 70 ]>er cent, of her normal revenue on the fighting forces.”