Documents

Meiji Constitution

Citation Formats

General Reference

Political Atlas. "Meiji Constitution." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-political.interactiveatlas.org/documents/meiji-constitution.

APA Style

Political Atlas. (n.d.). Meiji Constitution. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-political.interactiveatlas.org/documents/meiji-constitution

BibTeX

@misc{politicalatlas-meiji-constitution,
  author = {Political Atlas},
  title = {Meiji Constitution},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-political.interactiveatlas.org/documents/meiji-constitution},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Constitution of the Empire of Japan, Japan's first modern constitution, promulgated by Emperor Meiji in 1889. It established a bicameral Imperial Diet with an elected lower house and a prime minister and cabinet appointed by the emperor, while vesting the emperor with supreme authority, including command of the armed forces. It was presented as a gift from the emperor to the people and could be amended only on imperial initiative.

Facts

Year

1889 1

Key Provision

Promulgated by Emperor Meiji on 11 February 1889 and in force from 1890 until Japan's postwar constitution replaced it in 1947, it granted Japan its first modern constitution as an act of imperial favor rather than a document adopted by popular sovereignty: Article 1 declared the empire to be reigned over and governed by a line of emperors unbroken for ages eternal, vesting sovereignty in the throne. It created a bicameral Imperial Diet, an elected House of Representatives alongside an appointed House of Peers, with legislative power exercised only with the Diet's consent, granted subjects civil liberties qualified by law, and placed the supreme command of the army and navy directly under the Emperor rather than the civilian cabinet, a separation that let the military increasingly act independently of elected government through the 1930s. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections