After the Meiji Restoration, which restored direct political power to the emperor, Japan

underwent a period of sweeping political and social reform and westernization which
was aimed at strengthening Japan, to the level of the nations of the Western world. The
Meiji constitution of 1889 marked the culmination of this modernization process, which
resulted in the establishment of the first parliamentary government in Japan. The Meiji
constitution or the declaration by the Meiji government that it would promulgate a
constitution in 1889 had marked an end to the Popular Rights Movement that had
emerged in Japan during the 1870s.
Andrew Gordon suggests that Two fundamental questions concerned the politically
aware men, and some women, who sustained the popular rights movements.
First, what sort of new political structure should be adopted?
Second, who would participate? Discussion very quickly focused on the need to write a
fundamental document that would answer these questions, that is, a constitution.
Marius B Jansen tracing the background of the movt comments that this liberal
opposition can be traced back to the splintering of the original leadership group in
October 1873. Antagonized by Han favoritism, the monopoly of the Satsuma-Chosu
clique and by difference of opinion regarding a military expedition to Korea had led a
dissident minority group to break away from this Meiji oligarchy to form the first
political association in Japan. The leaders of this movement were Itagaki and Goto, who
deeply impressed by the western techniques of political opposition in the form of
constitutional agitation and through political parties had given rise to a new era in
Japanese politics. the organization formed by these leaders- Aikokukoto- and its
demand for a representative assembly had thrown a liberal challenge to the incumbent
leadership for the first time and signaled the opening of what became a decade long
campaign known as the Popular Rights Movement.
Andrew Gordon adds to this and argues Schools, study groups, and cultural groups
such as poetry circles were among the most important incubators of a sense of political
awareness in the late Tokugawa countryside. Many people, not only the privileged or
powerful, were gripped with a sense that great change was approaching. They came to
feel concerned and sometimes even moved to act.
2. Especially as the fall of the bakufu loomed imminent in 1866 and 1867, people from
all walks of life came to believe that vast, unpredictable changes were on the way. In the
final months of Tokugawa rule, showers of good luck charms and impromptu carnivals
in city streets were signs of this vague expectation of change. More focused and
immediately relevant were proposals worked up in several domains to create
deliberative assemblies. These bodies were supposed to play a major role in any new
governing structure.
3. in this decade a vigorous and partisan press emerged. The first daily newspaper in
Japan, the Yokohama Mainichi Shinbun, was established in 1871. A daily newspaper
began publication in Tokyo the following year. Called the Nichinichi (Daily) News, it is
predecessor to today’s Mainichi Shinbun. Such publications quickly became the center
of public debate over the direction of the Meiji government. They called for
establishment of a parliament.
4. A vast range of political thought was translated. By the late 1870s curious readers
could dip into the works of John Stuart Mill and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Works of
conservative German statism and the social Darwinism of Herbert Spencer were
translated and found enthusiastic readers among an increasingly educated public. The
most important single publication of the 1870s enlightenment was probably the Meiji
Six Journal (Meiroku Zasshi). The most important intellectual voice of this journal, and
indeed of the entire Meiji era, was certainly Fukuzawa Yukichi. At the heart of the
writings of Fukuzawa and colleagues such as Nishi Amane and Nakamura Masanao
(who introduced the utilitarian ideas of John Stuart Mill to Japan) was a belief in the
inevitability and value of “progress” toward a state of “civilization.” These men saw the
nation-states of the contemporary West as the forefront of world civilization. They
valued the strivings of individuals in Japan not so much for the sake of individual
happiness as for their contribution toward national progress and strength.
Further, Peter Duus has argued that the 1870s were not only marked by a
breakthrough to modernity but also by vocal anti-government criticism, sometimes
coupled with outbursts of political violence, basically a troubled decade. In contrast to
the Peasant riots and the samurai uprisings of mid-1870s , a a new form of peaceful
political protest relying on political agitation, local organization, journalistic attacks and
direct petition to the central government that had emerged.
Emphasizing on liberty, equality and the right to elect government officials, the Popular
Rights movement brought together at various points of time former Restoration leaders
and intellectuals, urbanites and villagers, shizoku and wealthy commoners, peasants
and intellectuals- all of whom shared an interest in opposing oligarchic rule.

Elise Tipton suggests that The People’s Rights Movement became the main form of
organized opposition to the government after the failure of the Satsuma Rebellion. It has
been associated with Western ideas of liberalism and democracy, and its suppression is
seen by Marxian historians as part of the establishment of the absolutist emperor
system. At the top level of leadership, however, the personal ambitions of the
movement’s leaders appear to have been more important than ideological or
philosophical motivations
The two main leaders, Itagaki Taisuke and Okuma Shigenobu, left the government at
different times. Itagaki left over rejection of the Korean expedition in 1873;
Andrew Gordon points out that Unlike Saigo¯ Takamori, who took his anger in the
direction of armed rebellion, Itagaki and his allies submitted a memorial to the
government calling for a national assembly. They argued that free discussion and
representative government were necessary to build a strong nation, as in this statement
in their famous “Memorial on the Establishment of a Representative Assembly”.
W.G BEASLEY DESCRIBES HIS GROUP AS small group of these, led by
Itagaki Taisuke, has always been described as loyalist, though before 1868 its concern
seems to have been more with military reform than politics, and it was only in urging,
against conservative opposition, that Tosa should join Satsuma and Chashfi in military
action against Edo at the time of the Restoration that its members committed
themselves directly to loyalist policies.

O ¯kuma was dismissed in 1881 after demanding immediate establishment of a national

representative assembly, criticizing government officials for selling Hokkaido assets
cheaply to friends, and favouring a financial programme based on foreign loans.
Although circumstances for leaving the government differed, they both involved han-
based factional politics, O ¯kuma’s dismissal leaving Satsuma and Cho¯shu¯
monopolizing all important posts. Although they founded Japan’s first political parties
based on progressive Western political concepts and probably accelerated the
government’s announcement of plans for a parliamentary system, their party
programmes favoured the interests of former samurai as well as national expansion.
In the formative period (from 1874-1878) several political organizations were formed, such
as the Public Party of Patriots (Aikokuto ) in 1874 and the Society to Establish One's
Ambitions (Risshisha ). The membership of these groups was largely in Tosa, now called
Kochi Prefecture and its leaders, like Itagaki Taisuke, Ueki Emori, Kataoka Kenichi called for a
popular assembly and a representative government. These institutions, they felt, would
remedy the problems created by the concentration of power, conscription, heavy taxes and
the mismanagement of foreign affairs.
Joyce Chapman lebra in her work suggests The Western concepts of liberty and equality
met a favorable response among anti-government segments of the population. The earliest
center of this popular rights movement was Tosa, where Itagaki after I873 organized the
local samurai and land- owners into the Aikokuk6to and later the Risshisha, which
disseminated liberalism of the French school.
The Aikokuto presented the government with a demand for a popularly elected legislature
and "universal rights," signed in January I874 by Itagaki and others. Kido refused to sign on
the ground that it was too radical.'
Around the same time as Itagaki and Goto spearheaded the Public Society of Patriots, a
number of private schools dedicated to providing a Western-style education sprung up
throughout the country known as Shijuku, focussing on western sciences , literature and
philosophy as well.  Herbert Spencer and John Stuart Mill were at the top of
many shijuku reading lists, with men like Rousseau, Locke, and Guizot not far behind. 
Despite attempts by the Japanese government to limit the propagation of classical liberal
ideas through media censorship, many Japanese were intrigued and attended such schools
They eventually eclipsed the Public Society of Patriots as the forefront of the jiyu
minken movement as they adopted methods like organizing traveling debate teams
consisting of student and scholar alike.
By the mid-1870s, debate teams had become the most popular and effective way of
spreading classical liberal ideas to the masses.  In addition to calling for public election of
government officials, they sought increased democratic reforms at the local level. These
debate teams worried many government officials in Tokyo.  Eifu Motoda, the conservative
Confucian tutor of the Meiji Emperor, disparaged shijuku as “political discussion gangs.”
Duus has argued that during its initial phase, this movement was neither democratic
nor popular in nature. It was recruited and led mainly by former samurai- mainly from
Tosa. Thus, Risshisha was essentially concerned about helping local samurai in Tosa
adjust to changing economic conditions as it did at arousing their political
consciousness. These leaders had very little confidence in the wisdom of the common
people or in their ability to participate in politics. When they spoke of people they
essentially meant the ex-samurai class and the well-to-do peasants, who had formed the
village elite in the pre-Restoration times. However, the government was concerned
when the Risshisha tried to link up with other groups of disaffected samurai, as it did in
1875 by organizing the Aikokusha, a national "association of patriots."
Which led Okubo Toshimichi, the dominant figure in the oligarchy, to issue an imperial
edict promising "gradual progress" toward an elected national assembly. In return,
Itagaki, Goto, and Kido Takayoshi of Choshu reentered the government. But what must
be noted is that many members of the movement, still thought of violence as a means to
achieve ends for instance, Ueki Emori wrote that liberty had to be bought with "fresh
blood" and proclaimed the right of the people to revolt against a tyrannical
government .Many urged Itagaki to join the Saigo’s revolt . However, the popular rights
movement began to change in character with the death of Saigo, whose tactics of
violence had proven a dead end.
Andrew Gordon argues that Itagaki was an opportunist who more than once left his
fellow activists in the lurch to return to the government with high rank. His organizing
began with a relatively narrow base of support, primarily among former samurai. In
addition to calls for political reform, he focused on winning relief for the once-proud,
now impoverished samurai. Further, despite the calls for free deliberation, some former
samurai supporters of the movement inherited the violent spirit of the bakumatsu “men
of action,” for whom pure motives were sufficient to justify dramatic acts of political
terror.
Phase 2
Itagaki’s initial organizations soon collapsed. But by the late 1870s, a fast spreading
interest at the grass roots of society in a constitution and parliament sustained a
renewed movement for popular political participation. In the years from 1879 to 1881,
in particular, local activists formed nearly two hundred political societies in the cities
and countryside. Members included both farmers and former samurai. They undertook
an unprecedented popular mobilization that gradually came together into two national
political parties, with all the features of such bodies except the chance to contest
national elections.
. They had dues-paying members in local units. They wrote bylaws to allow local groups
to send representatives to national conventions to hammer out a platform and action
program. These groups held rallies and founded journals.
Leading members barnstormed on speaking tours of the Japanese countryside, holding
grand fund-raising banquets with local supporters. They also collected tens of
thousands of signatures on hundreds of petitions demanding a constitution and a
parliament, which they submitted to the government.
Gordon further suggests In addition, the popular rights movement gained power by
appropriating traditional symbols for its cause. Supporters performed plays with
Tokugawa-vintage bunraku puppets, whose kimono were adorned with the written
characters for “freedom’.
New children’s rhyming songs echoed the call for popular rights. And the ideas of many
activists mixed Confucian concepts of the ruler’s obligation to practice benevolent
government with Western ideas of natural human rights in political affairs.
What was particularly noteworthy about political life in Japan at this time is the self-
generated activity of so many people at the grass roots of society.
They came together in ad hoc study groups to read and debate, to write petitions or
manifestos, or even to draft model constitutions.
Elise tipton points out Investigating the Chichibu uprising of 1884, Irokawa Daikichi,
founder of the ‘people’s history’ school, discovered a draft constitution written by
middle-level farmers and other rural participants in the movement in an old farm
storehouse.
Popular rights activity took place in a variety of forums. Groups called “industrial
societies” were formed in the countryside to discuss issues such as new farming
techniques, cooperative experimental stations, or high rates of taxation. Landowners
and leading local families were usually the organizers. Typical members included village
heads, teachers, local merchants, shrine officials, and doctors. The government decision
to establish a Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce in 1881 was a step to co-opt and
control such local energies.
Popular political education and activism also took place in city-based study groups.
These were comprised primarily of journalists and educators, often former samurai,
who made up the urban intelligentsia of the Meiji era. The most famous study societies
evolved into Japan’s leading private universities: Fukuzawa Yukichi’s ¯group developed
into Keio University, and Okuma Shigenobu’s organization formed the core of Waseda
University.
Parallel to these urban academic groups were many rural cultural societies and political
associations. In contrast to those in rural “industrial societies,” the members of these
study groups tended to be former samurai. They read and discussed political philosophy
as well as economic and agricultural texts. Often their deliberations led to a decision to
take action, most typically in the form of submitting a petition to the Meiji government
calling for a constitution and popular assembly.
 MIKISO HANE SUGGESTS THAT The movement by the workers to gain better pay and
working conditions did emerge but only on a limited scale. The first strike was staged by
women cotton-mill workers in 1884 but they failed to gain concessions. Other strikes were
staged after the Sino-Japanese War but they were ineffective in winning better wages and
conditions. But around this time movements to organize unions began to emerge. The first
serious effort was made in 1897 with the establishment of the Society for the Protection of
Trade Unions under the leadership of Takano Fusataro (1868–1904), an admirer of Samuel
Gompers, and Katayama Sen (1859–1933), a believer in Christian socialism and international
communism. Led by this group organizations of ironworkers, railroad workers, and printers
emerged but they emphasized reforms and did not focus on strikes to gain concessions.

Explanation of public participation by scholars like

Duus has argued that the involvement of the well-to-do sections in the countryside
came at a time when the countryside had witnessed a period of prosperity, which
strengthened the confidence of the local rural elite and generated leisure time and
capital that could be diverted to politics.
Jansen, however, has seen their participation as a natural outcome of the central
government’s attempts to strengthen its control over the countryside. the government
had opened up limited participation in the political process at the grass root level by
establishing elected prefectural assemblies. However, this far from satisfying the
masses had further given rise to popular discontent as these assemblies only had the
right to discuss but not initiate legislation or review the annual budget.
Irokawa Daikichi has also argued that one should focus on the cultural dimension of
the political unrest as well. He argued that political activism at the village level
expressed the desire of Japan’s new citizens to transcend the narrow world of feudal
culture. Intellectually and socially, the Popular Rights Movement opened up avenues of
activity long denied to commoners for instance the founding of the learning and
debating society in 1880 which was committed towards developing liberty and society.
As MIKISO HANE AND LOUIS G. PEREZ point out ,The enthusiasm for new ideas and
institutions was not restricted to the upper classes and the urban dwellers; educated
leaders of the rural communities played very significant roles in the political and
educational realms by establishing political societies, opening village schools, and
propagandizing for popular rights and “civilization and enlightenment.”
The peak of popular rights activism came from 1880 to 1881. Groups all around the
country collected at least 250,000 signatures on more than one hundred petitions
submitted to the government in Tokyo. Hundreds of local organizations joined into a
national federation that organized three “preparatory conventions” in Tokyo. The
delegates to the third such gathering met in October 1881. They declared themselves a
“political party,” the Liberal Party (Jiyu¯to¯), and immediately held their first national
convention. The party platform called for popular sovereignty and the convening of a
constitutional convention.
A few months later, in early 1882, a second group coalesced around Okuma Shigenobu.
This former samurai activist from the domain of Hizen had just been ousted from his
position as government minister, in part because he advocated a constitution that
provided for a powerful parliament on a British model. His Progressive Party
(Kaishinto¯) was more moderate than the Liberal Party in its demands. It had strong
support among the emerging business elite.
It is no coincidence that in October 1881, precisely as this political mobilizing was
reaching a peak of intensity and size, the Meiji government had the emperor announce
that a constitution would be written and promulgated by 1890. The leaders who took
this step were spurred by a sharp sense of crisis.
GORDON The popular rights movement was an important factor influencing the timing
and direction of the government’s decision to adopt a constitution. But the Meiji leaders
were not simply caving in to the opposition. They had already decided that
constitutional government was needed to secure international respect for Japan and to
mobilize the energies of the people behind projects to build a “rich nation and strong
army.” In 1878 they took a first step in this direction by establishing elected prefectural
assemblies nationwide, with advisory powers only. The government hoped thereby to
win the support of the rural elite of property owners (voting rights were limited to
those who paid the highest land taxes). In fact the assemblies often became hotbeds of
popular rights agitation.
Andrew Gordon suggests The unprecedented popular rights campaigns of petitioning
and speechmaking influenced the decision to adopt a constitution in two ironic ways.
First, they led the government to adopt repressive censorship laws. The first set was
promulgated in 1875. These were tightened the following year and reinforced once
more in 1887.
Second, the campaigns also intensified the determination of government figures to write
a conservative constitution modeled on the Prussian constitution of 1854. This
document gave the king and his ministers much power and limited the rights of the
people.
Jansen has argued that declaration of the constitution should not be seen as the
highmark of the movement. SHE argued that although the Meiji oligarchy issued a
constitution, it was not able to establish a true democratic polity. The constitution, was
the oligarchic response to the existing liberal tradition in Japan and was meant to be an
instrument in the hand of the oligarchy to suppress this liberal tradition. the provisions
of the constitution it would become amply clear that only limited representation was
provided to political parties in the diet, where only the lower house could be composed
by a popular mandate AND the franchise was restricted only to a small number of
people as it was based on the tax paying ability of the people and thus, it was not a
representative institution at all. Moreover, the lower house of the diet, had no control
over the Cabinet; could not interfere in dynastic affairs; didn’t have the power to declare
war, conclude peace or treaties nor could it initiate any amendment in the constitution.
all control over the government affairs were vested in the oligarchy that was spread
over the House of Peers, the cabinet, the privy council and the Genro. Thus, the
constitution was in fact an inflexible instrument of absolutism. According to Jansen, the
immediate impact of the Popular Rights’ Movement had only led to an even more
authoritarian government. Jansen, the limitation of the Popular Rights’ Movement came
from the leadership. It was weak and compromising that did not have the ability to rise
above their own vested interests to guide the various factions that had now become a
part of the movement.
Duus has also argued that the Popular Rights’ Movement had given rise to a counter
conservative reaction. The proponents of these counter currents feared the influx of
radical new ideas- natural rights, equality, legitimacy of rebellion-that undermined
respect for constituted authority. Nostalgic for the virtues of discipline, obedience and
order so central to pre-Restoration attitudes, a new group of conservative intellectuals
began to call for a return to the values and morality of the old society. This undercurrent
was characterized by a great deal of anti-western attitude and by a desire for the revival
of Confucian-style moral education. It was this conservative reaction that provided
intellectual justification for the increasing static policies of the government.

However, despite the influence it exercised on the constitutiOn, The last years of the
movement saw violent opposition to the Meiji government. These were of two kinds: (1)
insurrection plots that aimed at avenging the government repression used against the
Liberal party demonstrators at ‘Fukushima’; the most notable instance of this was the
Kabasan uprising. The former category of movements were ill-conceived, secretive in
nature and completely isolated from the pressing needs of the people
(2) peasant uprisings as the situation in the countryside, particularly of the peasants
had worsened as a result of the government’s deflationary policy
Gordon suggests the poverty suffered by some farmers in the following years led them
to raise arms against vastly superior forces on several occasions. These peasant
uprisings were sparked especially by high levels of debt suffered by tenant farmers and
small-scale producers of silk cocoons. Government economic policies of the early 1880s
brought on sharp deflation. Rice and raw silk prices fell to roughly half their 1880 levels
by 1884.
In numerous prefectures, especially in the silk-intensive regions in the Kanto¯ region,
these farmers organized groups with names such as Debtors Party or Poor People’s
Party. They demanded that creditors, usually local landlords, reduce or cancel their
debts or suspend demand for payments. The largest uprising took place in the Chichibu
region about fifty miles west of Tokyo. In early November 1884, six thousand men
raised a ragtag army. They attacked and destroyed government offices and debt
certificates. Marching from village to village, they drew in new supporters and trashed
the homes of moneylenders. Local police were overwhelmed. The government
eventually called in the army, and after about ten days the Meiji state’s troops put down
this rebellion rather easily. Five leaders were later tried and executed. A number of local
Liberal Party members took part in these rebellions, and some of the rebels called
themselves “soldiers of the Liberal Party.”
Thus, challenges to the new regime had complex social and regional sources. Former
samurai, wealthy farmers, and poor farmers were three groups behind popular rights
activism, while the former samurai and indebted farmers were main supporters of
armed rebellion or new religions.
Another section that came to forefront was women.
GORDON SUGGESTS the new government cautiously encouraged select women to play
an active role in support of its programs. It included five young women (ages nine
through sixteen) in the group of students who accompanied the Iwakura Mission. These
youths stayed on in the United States to receive an American education and become
model women for constructing a new Japan. the youngest of these students, Tsuda Ume
(nine years old when she left Japan), became a powerful figure promoting expanded
social roles for women. Upon her return, she founded a college for women today known
as Tsuda University, and she became a leader in women’s education.

In these same years, a vigorous debate on appropriate roles and rights for women and
men unfolded among those outside the government. this debate began with men
discussing how women ought to be treated. The best known forum was the Meiji Six
Journal. Some of the most important intellectuals of the time, including Fukuzawa
Yukichi and Mori Arinori (later to be minister of education), wrote on the meaning of
equality between men and women, the value of education for women, and the demerits
of legally recognizing concubines and giving their children rights of inheritance.
ACCORDING TO KIYOOKA, American missionaries and the Christians tried to abolish the
mistress law and custom. They also made an effort to abolish the patriarchy. The publication
of “Jogaku Zasshi”(Women Magazine), Japanese first women’s magazine, in 1885 by
Iwamoto Yoshiharu, who was Christian and believed in monogamy, the abolition of
prostitution, education for women, and equality of men and women in the home, was the
occasion for yet another campaign for women.
i(Tokyo Women’s Temperance Society) was founded by Christian women. This society aimed
to achieve monogamy based on the equality between men and women, and abolish the
prostitution abroad.

MIKISO HANE The Christian leaders set out to try to eliminate polygamy and public
brothels. The legal code of 1870 provided for legal recognition of concubines. In 1882 the
practice of registering concubines in the family register was ended. Women committing
adultery were punished severely but men could do so with impunity. Brothel districts
continued to exist in most cities. Those serving in the brothels were young girls and women
who were sold into the brothels by impoverished families, mostly poor peasant families. As
the urban population grew so did the patrons of brothels.
HANE Education of girls was limited largely to the elementary school level. Above the
elementary school level the government decreed in 1879 that boys and girls must attend
separate schools. In 1895 there were only thirty-seven schools for girls above the
elementary LEVEL. . But the principle of education proceed to the principle of “Good wife
and wise mother”.

Hence the domestic arts were stressed and few courses in mathematics, science or foreign
languages were included in the curriculum

The one area that opened up for Japanese women earlier than American women was
medicine. The pioneer woman who fought for the right to become a medical doctor was
Takahashi Mizuko (1852–1927).

Some women took their own steps to give meaning to the concepts of civilization and
enlightenment that had been put forward in the first instance for men only

Acc to Elise Tipton, These were women who promoted women’s rights as well as
popular rights more generally. Twenty-year-old Kishida Toshiko was one of the most
prominent and effective, whose speeches drew standing-room-only crowds and
national attention.
Some educated women, represented by Yajima Kajiko of the Tokyo Women’s Reform
Society, turned their energies to social reform. Though acting in a ladylike manner
acceptable to conservative times, they attacked the concubine system and prostitution,
including the ‘national shame’ of overseas prostitution. Behind this was a deeper
challenge to male privilege and patriarchal institutions.

the Meiji rulers by the 1880s had concluded that their own wives might play a
semipublic role as models and representatives of the nation to the world. Elite men and
women took up ballroom dancing and entertained foreigners at grand parties in the
heart of Tokyo. And in public discussions among men, even in the government, the idea
that women might support the nation with a political role had some support. Top
officials as well as journalists discussed whether it might not be appropriate for female
as well as male children in the imperial line to ascend to the throne. In the mid-1880s
some prominent government figures supported this idea.
MARA PATESSIO also points out how the number of women in public sphere increased
especially after the introduction of prefectural assemblies in 1879. Newspapers articles
on women’s presence at political meetings showed that women too were getting
educated in local politics . Infact, some were not just passive listeners but also helped
raise money towards the expenses that men would incur once the diet would be
established like the women reminiscent of the French Revolution .
 MIKISO HANE Women’s struggle to gain social and political equality did not really gain
momentum until the socialist-communist movements after the turn of the century.

Nature
Japanese and Western historians disagree sharply when explaining the failure of opposition
movements to oust the ruling oligarchy or force changes in its agenda. Scholars in America
and Great Britain like John W HALL influenced by modernization theory have generally
viewed Japan as a model of peaceful transition from feudalism to modernity, a
transformation in which core values of consensus and loyalty to emperor kept dissent within
manageable bounds.
Robert Scalapino sees this rhetoric as a tool with which certain members of the ex-samurai
class sought to gain political power for they could no longer rely either on military power or
on intellectual and social prestige. Itagaki Taisuke was far from liberal in his views of the
people and sought to build his base on the samurai, richer farmers and merchants. He
argued that political power should rest with the monied class.
On the other hand, most Japanese and some Western historians like EH NORMAN credit the
failure of the opposition movements to the authoritarian character of the Meiji state,
emphasizing the incorporation of oppressive semifeudal structures into the Meiji polity and
the oligarchy's control of the new state's efficient state security apparatus.