Page:Constitutional imperialism in Japan (IA constitutionalim00clemrich).pdf/56

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

X. Conclusion

It is certainly desirable to ascertain what conclusions and inferences may fairly be drawn from what has been recorded above. In the first place it is quite evident that, when one writes of the Government in Japan, a capital “G” should be employed. There is nothing small or weak about the administration, whether national, provincial, municipal, or what not. It all centers about the national administration in Tokyo; it is a case of centralization; it is a centripetal form of government; it gravitates around and toward the Imperial palace in Tokyo. It was with good reason that Dr. W. E. Griffis called his first great work on Japan The Mikado’s Empire; for the Empire belongs to the Emperor. And it is also with good reason that Dr. Griffis gives the title of The Mikado to his most recent work. A book entitled Japan to America, compiled by Mr. Naoichi Masaoka, and published by Putnams (1914), includes a contribution of a few pages (100–103) by Mr. Iechiro Tokutomi, the able editor of the Kokumin Shimbun, Tokyo, on “Centripetal Mikadoism”. We quote here some of Mr. Tokutomi’s expressions:

But our imperialism, our democratism, our socialism—all these center upon a single principle, and it is “centripetal Mikadoism”, as we express it and advocate it. Rome was, at one time, the center of the Roman Empire; hence the adage, “All roads lead to Rome”. In a like manner, the Mikado is the center of our nation. Considered as a body politic, it has him as its sovereign; considered as a distinct race, it has him as its leader; considered as a social community, it has him as its nucleus. Who can, then, contradict me when I say that all our “isms”—social, racial and political—are included, involved, implicated, by this “centripetal Mikadoism”?

And he attributes Japan’s “great socio-economic revolution” to the “automatic process” of that “centripetal Mikadoism”.

Another natural inference from these studies is that custom is more powerful than law. Or, to express the idea in another

(366)

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.