Evening star., 1937-05-23

REM1ER SENJURO HAYA.
- SH1S announcement recently
that he would remain in office
a despite the defeat of his gov.
ernment at the polls has been taker
as an omen of the end of constitu.
tional government in Japan. Thl
may be true, but in all probabilit,
only In so far as Premier Hayash
may change the spirit and the prac.
tice of the Japanese government
which has gradually been shaped since
the constitution was granted by EN-.
peror Mutsuhito on the eleventh day
OF the twenty-second year of Enlight.
ened Rule-February II, 1889. The
document itself is almost proof agains,
change
AS matter of fact, the constitution
resembles Japanese screen, deco
rated with Occidental figures as seer
through Oriental eyes-an accurate
representation, if a trifle exotic in
draughtsmanship. But behind the
screen the real political life of the
people goes on in much the same fash
ion as in the days of Jimmu Tenno
the founder of the realm. The ac-
tual methods of japanese rule can be
no more discovered in the wording
OF the constitution than the realities
OF American party government can
be found in the pages Of our own fun
damental law.
Had Oriental Flavor.
The japanese constitution was the
work, chiefly, of Prince-then Count
Ito. 1t drew on German models
the Prussian and Bavarian espe-
cially, for its phraseology, but the
spirit was quite n-European. The
Emperor gave the document to his
people. He did not contract with
them, but undertook in a general
way to rule according to the prin-
ciples set up in the document. The
people had no say in forming the
law: they were to have none in al
tering it.
Only the Emperor could initiate
an amendment. The Emperor could
veto legislation and initiate it. He
could rule by ordinances when the
Legislature was not in session and
during war or other emergency. The
Parliament, Or Diet, was to be COM
posed OF house of peers and a
house of representatives. The peers
some OF them hereditary, some chosen
by the nobility, others by the En-
peror, could block legislation of the
lower house. And the ministry was
not responsible to the Legislature, but
to the Emperor.
In outline and in detail the re-
semblance between this constitution
and that of the pre-war German
states is striking. One japanese
writer asserts that only three of the
73 sections of the document are orig
inal with it. the rest all derivative.
But other japanese scholars maintain
that the constitution is aboriginal
to Japan" that it is only the "codi-
flcation and PRONUNCIATION of the old
constitution in written form"
In a literal sense this is absurd.
There are no traces of democratic
forms in the old Japan But in the
sense that much of the ancient sub
stance could persist beneath the new
forms there is much to be said for
the theory. The wide, in the ulti-
mate, absolute power of the Emperor
made the continuity possible.
What Is the Emperor?
Political theorists have been much
exercised over the status of tho E,,
peror of Japan. One, DR.. Hazumi,
has said that since the Emperor gov-
erns as the heir of a divine ancestor
Japan is theocracy; that since he
Is regarded as the supreme head of
a family Of subjects his rule is patri-
archaic. that since he governs by
means OF constitutional forms his rule
IL constitutional. Therefore, "theo-
-patriarchal constitutionalism"