The Creation of a Modern State
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become business men. It also included other members of the business community who, as legal equals of the old samurai class, felt that they were entitled to a voice in the government. However, the oligarchy was not forced to make concessions to the public. It did so primarily because influential members of the ruling group had reached the conclusion from their study of Western political institutions that a constitution was essential to a strong westernized state, and that some form of parliamentary government was also a necessary part of the political machinery which helped make Western powers strong.
In 1868, the emperor had made a so-called “charter oath” in which he had given rather vague promises of forming a deliberative council and allowing public opinion a voice in government decisions. In 1879 the government actually experimented with elective bodies when it created Prefectural Assemblies, chosen by the higher tax-payers within each prefecture. Two years later the oligarchy promised to convene a National Assembly by 1890. Ito, a former samurai from Choshu, who was eventually to become a Prince in the new nobility, had been a leading advocate of constitutional and parliamentary forms of government, and he was assigned the task of studying Western constitutions and drafting one for Japan. He toured Europe to study the political institutions of the leading powers and was most impressed by the German, which seemed to him best adapted to Japanese needs. The Japanese Constitution was finally promulgated in 1889 in the form of a gracious gift to the people by the emperor. It stated clearly that the emperor was the fountain-