Historical background

Summary

The political upheaval of 1881 reaffirmed the dominance of the ‘Satsuma–Choshu clique’ which remained in power in Japan for more than thirty years. The opposition, which consisted of the popular Freedom and People's Right Movement and included ex-samurai dissentients and farmers suffering in the deflation, was quickly suppressed. The oligarchs drew up their political agenda, based upon the Prussian model. In 1885 the dajokan, the ancient governing body, was replaced by a cabinet system. In 1889 the Constitution of Imperial Japan was promulgated. In July 1890 the first general election, with a very limited suffrage, was held and the first session of the Diet was convened in November that year. Japan's foreign policy, primarily concerned with renegotiating the unequal treaties, was not particularly successful. On the Korean peninsula, confrontation was building up between China, Russia and Japan which culminated in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–5. Fortunately for Japan, shortly before the outbreak of the war Britain, first among the western powers, agreed to the revision of one of the objectionable treaties. Throughout the period, Masayoshi Matsukata presided over the monetary and banking problems of Japan. As a result of the Japanese success in the Sino-Japanese War, a huge indemnity was paid by the defeated Chinese. This gave Matsukata the opportunity to achieve a long-cherished dream for Japan to adopt the gold standard.