4B: Regimes

Timeline of Regimes

Here is an timeline of regimes in Japan from 1600 to 1945. A semi-democracy turns to a military authoritarian regime in 1936.

Regime	Duration	Description
Shogunate	1600-1867	Shogun is the absolute ruler.
Transitional Oligarchy	1867-1888	Renegade domain establish new bureaucratic state with emperor as sovereign.
Competitive Oligarchy	1889-1917	Constitution adopted. Political pluralism. Elections for Lower House.
Semi-Democracy	1918-1932	Electoral participation broadens. Political parties compete for power.
Military Authoritarian	1936-1945	Power only in non-elected officials. Elections do not matter.

Below are more details on each regime and how they compare to principles of democracy or self-governance. At the end of the page is an assessment of all the regimes in a table.

Tokugawa Shogunate

The Tokugawa Shogunate unified the lordly domains from 1600 to 1867. The shogun, a warlord, had no formal accountability. There was no formal institution to reflect the people’s will. Dissent was violently quelled as with the Japanese Christians leading to the closed country policy.

Meiji Regime in Waiting (1867-1889)

After renegade distant territories registered the threat of American or European colonization, and the weak Shogunate response, they overthrew the Shogunate. They installed a regime before the formal adoption of the Meiji Constitution. The competitive players for political power were the clans from Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa who led the revolution, aristocrats, imperial advisors, and the emperor himself.

Legal authority gained legitimacy with the establishment of precedent. The bureaucratic state grew in influence as did the Cabinet. But there was no electoral control over political offices and no suffrage. This regime was a transitional oligarchy.

Meiji: Competitive Oligarchy (1889-1917)

After the adoption of the Meiji Constitution, political competition was through formal political organizations. Competitors were clans, parties, the elected Lower House, aristocrats, and the emperor (I).

Elections only elected the Lower House members; they could not unilaterally form a governing coalition (“a government”). (II)

Electoral participation jumps from 451,000 (1st election, 1890) to 983,000 (7th election, 1902).

Semi-democratic Regime (1918-1932)

Two major parties compete on policy. But laws constrain other parties (I).

Still too few offices under electoral control Four groups– clan leaders, House of Peers, Privy Council, and military–sidestepped the elected Lower House and pleaded with the sovereign emperor. (II).

Electoral participation expanded from 4.8% (1917) of the total population to 19.1% (1928). Passes the third criterion (III) because voters did not espouse interests of one party or constituency alone.

Military Authoritarian Regime (1936-1945)

Political parties could no longer form cabinets. Ban on anti-military opinions in the Diet. Rejection of any constrains on the emperor’s power (I).

Electoral offices had no power. They were superseded by the army. With the emperor at the head, a group governed: prime minister, army, navy, foreign minister, and finance minister (II). So, elections for the Lower House were useless (III).