Foundations of Constitutional Government in Modern Japan, 1868-1900

Harvard University Press has partnered with De Gruyter to make available for sale worldwide virtually all in-copyright HUP books that had become unavailable since their original publication. The 2,800 titles in the “e-ditions” program can be purchased individually as PDF eBooks or as hardcover reprint (“print-on-demand”) editions via the “Available from De Gruyter” link above. They are also available to institutions in ten separate subject-area packages that reflect the entire spectrum of the Press’s catalog. More about the E-ditions Program »

Meiji constitutional development prior to 1900 is generally seen in terms of a conflict between the Meiji oligarchs and the advocates of parliamentary government. The essential flaw in the Japanese democratic experiment is widely attributed to the fact that the oligarchy, while ostensibly acceding to the party movement, used every means to ensure its ultimate collapse. George Akita takes sharp issue with this and other traditional interpretations and, utilizing a vast body of sources, presents a fresh, authoritative, and unusually comprehensive analysis of this key period in Japanese political history.