THE JAPANESE PARLIAMENT

New Zealand Tablet, 24 August 1911, Page 1621

THE JAPANESE PARLIAMENT

THE EMPEROR AND THE CONSTITUTION

Everyone knows of the astonishing progress that Japan has made in the last forty years. This progress, however (says the Rev. A. M. Roussell, S.J„, writing in America), has not been equally rapid in all the branches of civilisation. Nor would it be proper to compare this country with those of the West, but only with what Japan was forty years ago, at the time when the old regime came to an end. However, in the material order Japan might to-day stand comparison with the other nations in its army, navy, commerce, postal and police services. But in the material order itself and, of course, in the domain of the intellect and in the social and moral order there are many gaps and shortcomings. The poverty of Japan explains to some- degree, at least, its failure in material civilisation, and, naturally, where there is question of ideas or customs, progress cannot take place, mechanically., A people which has such a long past as that of Japan cannot make the progress of fifty or one hundred years in a week.

Some of the debates of the last session of the Parliament may give the outside world a gleam of light on the actual state of the Japanese mind, and will reveal some peculiarities of the conditions in which we live. A review of the discussions on the Universal Suffrage Bill may be helpful in that respect, for since the promulgation of the Japanese Constitution on February 11, 1889, Japan has been under a constitutional government, but by no means a parliamentary one. Still less can it be called democratic. For as this constitution was granted by the spontaneous and benevolent generosity of the emperor, a change in the constitution is reserved to his Imperial Highness, the chambers have nothing to say in the matter. The emperor is not only the chief executive, but is the source of all power. He is not compelled to consult Parliament either to declare war, or to conclude peace or to make treaties with any foreign State, or to determine the organisation of the army, or the number of troops of which it may be composed. The ministers of state are responsible only to the emperor, and in no way whatever to the representatives ; ; they are not obliged to submit to the majority of the Parliament, and may remain in office as long as they have the emperor’s confidence. Parliament has the right to interpellate the Ministry to place facts before it,, to present addresses to the emperor; but the government is not obliged to pay any attention to votes of censure. From 1891 to 1903, that is to say within a space of twelve years, the government dissolved the lower chamber seven ‘times, and since 1904 it has shown itself very docile, and has carried out whatever it has been told to do.

The Regular Annual Session of Parliament

lasts three months. The members are; convoked for the 20th of December, and immediately begin by taking a month’s vacation on account of the festival of the New Year. Thus they are in session only two months. Nearly all of the work is done in committee, so that during the session which has just finished; the lower house held only twenty-six sessions. A single session was enough to vote the budget, while in the upper house this important proceeding required only an hour. In brief, both houses are merely, as you would say in America, rubber stamps to carry out the wishes of the government. The House of Peers is so arranged as to avoid both the inconvenience of a purely hereditary body, like the English Lords, and that of an elective upper chamber. It is composed as follows: (1) Princes of imperial blood, 14 : (2) nobles who are hereditary members, 43; (3) -nobles elected by the peers, 143 ; (4) members named by the emperor, 121: (5) members elected by the highest taxpayers, 43 ; total, 364. (1) All princes of the blood are members by right as soon as they have reached their majority, which they reach at the age of twenty. All the dukes, who are also called princes, to the number of thirteen, and all

the marquises to the number of thirty, are by - right hereditary members when they reach the age of twentyfive.

(2) The three other order's of nobility, counts, viscounts, and barons, elect a certain number of their peers for a term of seven years. They are eligible at the age of twenty -five.

(3) Each of the three inferior orders of the nobility can be represented at the maximum by the fifth part of all the members of the upper chamber. Actually there are 17 counts, 70 viscounts, 56 barons, who are members.

(4) The emperor selects and names a certain number of members among his subjects, who are distinguished for their erudition, or who have rendered some notable service to the ■ State. All of the above are members for life.

(5) In each of the Prefectures of the Empire the fifteen greatest direct taxpayers choose one of their number to represent them in the upper chamber. These forty-three members hold office for seven years. The members belonging to the two classes just mentioned have to be at least thirty years old, and their total number can never exceed that of the three other classes. Thus every precaution is taken to have

The Influences of the Upper Chamber

properly balanced, so that none can have preponderance over the others. Moreover, all the influences of this part of the government are conservative, as was plainly seen in the discussion of the Universal Suffrage Bill. Finally, there is another distinction in this part of the legislature, viz., the absence of political parties. Its members are divided into little groups, formed for the most part by members of the same order of nobility or of the same class. The Chamber of Representatives is entirely renewed every four years. It consists of 379 members, 75 of whom are for the city constituencies, and 304 for the country districts. One cannot be a member before the age of thirty. No other condition is required than that the member be in the enjoyment of all civil rights, but he is not allowed to be engaged in certain functions, which are determined by law.

The representatives, like the non-hereditary peers, receive an annual indemity of one thousand dollars in gold. Moreover, they have free transportation on the railways.

According to the law of 1889, only those who paid at least 7 dollars 50 cents, in direct taxes in the Prefecture to which they belonged could be candidates for office. But in 1900 this clause was suppressed. It happened that just then the number of representatives, which was originally 300, was advanced to 379, and, moreover, the revision of the electoral law enlarged the number of possible candidates by lowering the amount of 7 dollars 50 cents, to 5 dollars. Hence, since 1900, it has been sufficient for a Japanese to be twenty - five years of age and to pay a tax of 5 dollars in direct

taxes to be an elector. Army men and ministers of religion are disfranchised. But this second condition restricts considerably the right of ' suffrage, so that Japan is very far from having

Anything Like Universal Suffrage. In fact, at the elections of 1908 there were only a million and a half who had the right to vote, viz. : a proportion of thirty-two electors for every thousand inhabitants, while if universal suffrage is accorded, even if it is restricted to the age of twenty-five, the number cf voters will be no less than twelve million. For a long time there has been'a demand and desire for universal suffrage. For this a Bill has been presented eight times. In the last session it obtained a majority of votes in the lower house, but the peers rejected it in such a. fashion that there is no hope whatever of seeing it become a law in the near future. Not a single peer voted for it. Indeed, every one knows that as long as power remains in the hands of the statesmen who rule Japan at the present time a Bill of this description will not have the slightest chance of success. Nevertheless, the way it was . received in the lower chamber is somewhat significant, because it really indicates that a party which had made up its mind to sustain the government on all important questions was won over. A study of the reasons advanced for and against the passage of the Bill would give an excellent idea of the condition of the Japanese mind in the matter of democracy, and of the progress that has been , made in a country which such a short time ago emerged from feudalism.