Constitutional Imperialism in Japan/Chapter 4
IV. The Cabinet
It is interesting to note that the Cabinet has no official standing in the Constitution. “Ministers of State” are merely mentioned and to that extent are recognized even in their official capacities; but the Cabinet as a body is not officially recognized. Of course, it may be taken for granted, that several ministers of State, of whom one is known as “Prime Minister,” would form an organization, called a “Ministry” or a “Cabinet.” Thus, indirectly, the Cabinet, as a constitutional organ, is recognized and must receive consideration.[1] The ministers of State are the following: Minister President of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Home Affairs, Minister of Finance, Minister of War, Minister of the Navy, Minister of Justice, Minister of Education, Minister of Agriculture and Commerce, Minister of Communications, and Minister of the Imperial Household. But the last-mentioned is not a member of the Cabinet, which, when fully constituted, consists thus of ten members.
To elucidate what follows, we have prepared (see following page) a table of the Cabinets during the past twenty-five years or so. It should, however, be explained that the figures of duration cannot be given with absolute exactness, but are approximate; because, theoretically, each Cabinet holds over till its successor takes office, but practically gives up office at the time of resignation. However, the interim is generally only a few days and, at the longest, has been only one month.
The table of Cabinets shows that, in the first eight cases (with the exception of the Okuma-Itagaki Cabinet, which lasted only a few months), three of the Elder Statesmen (Yamagata, Matsukata and Ito) took turns as Premier and were in power (with other Elder Statesmen, like Inouye and Oyama, sometimes in the Cabinets with them) for about twelve years. Then for the next period of about twelve years, Katsura (Yamagata’s lieutenant) and Saionji (Ito’s lieutenant) held power alternately.
The table of Cabinets also shows that the average duration of the fourteen ministries that held office for a period of 24⅓ years (December 1889–March 1914) is almost twenty-one months. The average of the first eight Ministries, which covered eleven and one-half years, is a little over seventeen months; while the average of the last six Ministries, which covered almost thirteen years, is almost twenty-six months. It is interesting to note that the two unusually long terms were held by the first Ito and the first Katsura Ministries, which covered the periods respectively of the War with China (1894, 1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904, 1905), when political rivalries were temporarily buried. Moreover, Katsura holds two records—of both the longest and the shortest ministries.
| Table of Cabinets. | |||||||
| Premier | Term of Office | Years | Months | ||||
|
Dec., | 1889–April, | 1891 | 1 | 5 | ||
|
May, | 1891–July, | 1891 | 1 | 3 | ||
|
Aug., | 1892–Aug., | 1896 | 4 | 1 | ||
|
Sept., | 1896–Dec., | 1897 | 1 | 4 | ||
|
Jan., | 1898–June, | 1808 | 0 | 6 | ||
|
June, | 1898–Oct., | 1898 | 0 | 4 | ||
|
Nov., | 1898–Sept., | 1900 | 1 | 11 | ||
|
Oct., | 1900–May, | 1901 | 0 | 8 | ||
|
June, | 1901–Jan., | 1906 | 4 | 7 | ||
|
Jan., | 1906–July, | 1908 | 2 | 6 | ||
|
July, | 1908–Aug., | 1911 | 3 | 2 | ||
|
Sept., | 1911–Dec., | 1912 | 1 | 4 | ||
|
Dec., | 1912–Feb., | 1913 | 0 | 2 | ||
|
Feb., | 1913–Mar., | 1914 | 1 | 1 | ||
|
Apr., | 1914– | |||||
As in England, any member of the Cabinet may be also a member of either House. And ministers who may not be members have, nevertheless, the right at any time to take seats (in a special place) and to speak in either House. They have also free access to committee rooms.
The Cabinet may be called the Emperor's executive organ. Ito says:
The Ministers of State are charged with the duty of giving advice to the Emperor; they are to serve as media through which the Imperial commands are conveyed, and are to execute administrative affairs.[2]
Uyehara says that the Cabinet “is the channel and medium through which the Sovereign exercises his power.”[3]
The principal question with reference to the Cabinet is that of its responsibility. The text of the Constitution is unfortunately (perhaps purposely?) indefinite; it reads as follows:
The respective Ministers of State shall give their advice to the Emperor and be responsible for it.[4]
But Ito is more explicit in his Commentaries, where he uses the following expression:
The appointment and dismissal of them [Ministers] having been included by the Constitution in the sovereign power of the Emperor, it is only a legitimate consequence that the power of deciding as to the responsibility of Ministers is withheld from the Diet.
Ministers are directly responsible to the Emperor and indirectly so to the people.
It is the Sovereign and not the people that can decide as to the responsibility of Ministers.[5]
As a matter of fact there can be no doubt that until somewhat recently it was acknowledged and accepted, in theory and in practice, that the Cabinet was responsible only to the Emperor. And yet, even as early as 1895, Ito himself made an informal alliance with the Liberal party; and Matsukata, who followed him, similarly obtained the support of the Progressive party.
The year 1898 witnessed an attempt, but a short-lived one, to establish a “party cabinet” under Okuma and Itagaki. Next, even the conservative Yamagata followed the plan of an entente cordiale with the predominant party (Liberal) in the Lower House. In 1900–1901, an Ito ministry was another abortive attempt to establish a “party cabinet” under the auspices of Ito’s newly organized party (Seiyukai). Later Saionji and Yamamoto made more serious and more successful attempts to carry on the administration in close connection with the dominant party (Seiyukai) in the Lower House. Finally, on Christmas Day, 1914, Okuma dissolved the House of Representatives and appealed to a general election, by which he obtained a large majority to back up his Ministry, which is at once a personal and a party cabinet. The old-style “transcendental cabinet” is no longer possible; a “party cabinet” is demanded by public opinion and is another of the results of the first quarter century of constitutionalism.
- ↑ The following (issued in 1899) explains itself.
Imperial Notification No. 135.
Functions of the Cabinet.
Art. I.—The Cabinet is composed of the various Ministers of State.
Art. II.—The Minister President of State stands at the head of the Ministers of State, reports affairs of State to the Sovereign, and in compliance with Imperial instructions, has general control over the various branches of the administration.
Art. III.—The Minister President of State, should an occasion seem sufficiently important to demand such a course, has competence to give instructions to any branch of the administration or to suspend ifs notifications, pending an expression of the Sovereign’s will on the subject.
Art. IV.—All laws and all imperial ordinances affecting the administration as a whole, shall bear the counter signature of the Minister President as well as that of the Minister from whose Department they directly emanate. All imperial ordinances affecting a special Department only, shall be counsigned by the Minister of that Department alone.
Art. V.—The following matters shall be submitted for deliberation by the Cabinet:
(1.) Drafts of laws, financial estimates, and settled accounts.
(2.) Treaties with foreign countries and all national questions of importance.
(3.) Ordinances relating to administration, or to the carrying out of regulations and laws.
(4.) Disputes connected with the relative competence of Ministers of Departments.
(5.) Petitions from the people, handed down from the Throne or submitted by the Imperial Diet.
(6.) Expenditures apart from the ordinary estimates.
(7.) Appointments of chokunin officials and of local prefects and governors, as well as their promotions and removals.
In addition to the above, any important matters connected with the duties of Ministers of Departments, and having relation to the higher branches of the administration, shall also be submitted for deliberation by the Cabinet.
Art. VI.—Every Minister of a Department is competent to submit any matter whatsoever bearing on his functions for the consideration of the Cabinet through the Minister President.
Art. VII.—With the exception of military or naval affairs of grave importance which, having been reported directly to the Sovereign by the Chief of Staff, may have been submitted by His Majesty for the consideration of the Cabinet, the Ministers of State for War and the Navy shall report to the Minister President.
Art. VIII.—Should the Minister President be prevented from discharging his functions, they may be temporarily delegated to another Minister of State in conjunction with the latter’s own duties.
Art. IX.—Should any Minister of State be prevented from discharging his functions, they may be delegated temporarily to another Minister of State in conjunction with the latter’s own duties, or another Minister may be appointed to discharge them.
Art. X.—In addition to the various Ministers of State, a Minister may be specially authorized to sit in the Cabinet.
- ↑ Op. cit., p. 93.
- ↑ Op. cit., p. 140.
- ↑ Article LV.
- ↑ Loc. cit.