Meiji oligarchy
The Freedom and People's Rights Movement and liberals among the Meiji oligarchy had withdrawn from the Meiji government over their efforts to establish a national assembly with increased representative democracy. The Osaka Conference of 1875 attempted to address this issue by the establishment of the Genrōin, a national assembly whose members (theoretically appointed directly by the Emperor) were drawn from the peerage, upper ranks of the bureaucracy and various scholars. The Genrōin was only quasi-legislative, in that it had the power to review proposed legislation and make recommendations, but did not have the power to actually initiate any legislation. As an assembly, it replaced the .