Industrial
and Political Change in the
Meiji State
nBy 1889 the political reconstruction was complete.
•Political parties had formed on regional levels.
•The Meiji created a new conservative nobility from former nobles and Meiji leaders
•They sat in a British-style House of Peers.
•The bureaucracy was reorganized, expanded, and opened to those taking civil service examinations.
•The constitution of 1889 gave major authority to the emperor and lesser power to the lower house of the Diet.
•High property qualifications limited the right to vote to about 5% of the male population.
•The system gave power to an oligarchy of wealthy businessmen and former nobles that controlled political currents into the 20th century.
•Japan had imitated the West, but had retained its own identity.
