Parliamentary Politics and the Emperor in Modern Japan

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13338
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 03020:Japanese history-related
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Kokubu Koji 九州大学, 人文科学研究院, 講師 (20734669)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 日本近代史 / 議会政治 / 天皇

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study is to examine the process by which parliamentary government took root in modern Japan, focusing on the relationship between the Emperor as a governing body and the Diet. Regarding the Privy Council, the advisory office of the Emperor, I could trace the aspect that the Privy Council secured the parliamentary form of the constitutional system. With regard to the relationship between the Emperor, the Cabinet, and the Diet, I have focused on the parliamentary authority stipulated in the Constitution and the rituals surrounding the Emperor and the Diet. I have organized the criticism of the Cabinet during the Second Movement for Constitutional Government by the Congress and political party forces in relation to the court rituals. In terms of the relationship between the representative and symbolic nature of Congress and the Emperor, I focused on the petition system and clarified the actual situation of petitions addressed to the Emperor.

Free Research Field

日本近代史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、憲法という法体系の運用における、ある機関の「領域」が実体化し、慣習として固着化するプロセスに着目し、統治機構としての天皇・宮中との関わりから、議会政治の定着を考察した。天皇と議会という視点に留意することで、帝国議会の役割の定着のみならず、大臣の信任・不信任、議会の解散など、天皇と内閣と議会との間での慣習の形成という論点の存在があらためて明らかになった。また、宮内庁書陵部宮内公文書館などの調査によって、新たな史料の公開を進めるとともに、史料情報の整理を進めた。