The establishment of the Japanese constitutional system

"When it was first published in Japan, The Establishment of the Japanese Constitutional System was immediately recognised by modern Japanese historians as a work of acute and original analysis. Based largely on contemporary documents, diaries and letters, it provides an invaluable background to understanding the nature of relations between parliament, bureaucrats and leaders of political cliques in Japan, relations which persist to this day."--BOOK JACKET. "The Establishment of the Japanese Constitutional System is an authoritative account of the establishment of constitutional government in Japan during the turbulent decade of the 1890s. An intensely 'political' story, full of power struggles and the clash of interests, it tells how political experience was accumulated by government leaders and party politicians in these formative years."--BOOK JACKET.^ "Between 1868 and 1890 the Meiji government wielded despotic power, and was able to pursue its military and industrial policies virtually unchallenged. After the Diet was established, however, the government found its policies challenged by the 'popular parties' which demanded that government expenditure and the burden of tax on fa