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52
Constitutional Imperialism in Japan
[Vol. VI

The Tokyo Nicki-nichi Shimbun says:

Our political system is neither monarchical nor democratic, neither bureaucratic nor parliamentary, neither militaristic nor anti-militaristic. These six elements are put together in an unharmonious conglomeration.

Dr. N. Hozumi, emeritus professor of the Imperial University, Tokyo, has expressed his conception in these words:

The foregoing statements lead us to a very peculiar conclusion as to the nature of the government, which may at first sight seem paradoxical, and yet is true. The Emperor holds the supreme power, not as his own inherent right, but as an inheritance from his Divine Ancestor. The government is, therefore, theocratical. The Emperor rules over the country as the supreme head of the vast family of the Japanese nation.[1] The government is, therefore, patriarchal. The Emperor exercises the sovereign power according to the Constitution, which is based on the most advanced principles of modern constitutionalism. The government is, therefore, constitutional. In other words, the fundamental principle of the Japanese government is theocratico-patriarchal constitutionalism.[2]

In another place Dr. Hozumi says:

I can speak from personal knowledge, that the principal care of Prince Ito, in preparing the draft of the Constitution, by the command of his Sovereign, was to reconcile and bring into harmony the traditional character of the government, based on the cult of the Imperial Ancestor, with the most advanced principles of modern constitutionalism.[3]

It would seem, therefore, as if the Government of Japan is not unlike what Rev. R. A. Hume, in writing about church government in his “Missions from the Modern View”, called “Episco-presby-gational”. The Emperor is the “bishop”,

  1. ↑ Percival Lowell has well said in The Soul of the Far East (p. 30), concerning Japan: “The Empire is one great family; the family is a little empire”.
  2. ↑ Ancestor-Worship and Japanese Law, pp. 87, 88.
  3. ↑ Ibid., p. 93.

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