Editing Emperor of Japan (section)

===Meiji Restoration (1868)===
{{Main|Meiji Restoration}}
[[File:武州六郷船渡図_Bushu_Rokugo_funawatashi_no_zu.jpg|thumb|The first arrival of Emperor Meiji to [[Edo (Tokyo)|Edo]] (1868)]]

In July 1853, [[Matthew C. Perry|Commodore Perry]]'s [[Black Ships]] of the [[United States Navy|US Navy]] made their first visit to [[Edo Bay]]. Japan lacked the military and industrial power to prevent it.<ref name="bs">{{Cite web |last=Dower |first=John |author-link=John W. Dower |title=Black Ships and the Samurai: Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan (1853–1854) |url=https://visualizingcultures.mit.edu/black_ships_and_samurai/bss_essay01.html |year=2010 |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |access-date=15 June 2019}}</ref><ref name="takekoshi">Takekoshi, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mvfMKV1b1fwC&pg=PA285 pp. 285–86]</ref> Unequal treaties coerced and took advantage of Japan.<ref name="bs"/><ref name="takekoshi"/> Consequently, Japan was forcibly opened to foreign trade and the shogunate proved incapable of hindering the "barbarian" interlopers; [[Emperor Kōmei]] thus began to assert himself politically. By the early 1860s, the relationship between the [[Imperial Court in Kyoto|Imperial Court]] and the shogunate was changing radically. Disaffected [[Han system|domains]] and ''[[rōnin]]'' began to rally to the call of ''[[sonnō jōi]]'' ("revere the emperor, expel the barbarians"). The domains of [[Satsuma Domain|Satsuma]] and [[Chōshū Domain|Chōshū]], historic enemies of the Tokugawa, used this turmoil to unite their forces and won an important military victory outside of [[Kyoto]] against Tokugawa forces.{{Citation needed|date=October 2021}}

On 9 November 1867, the Shogun [[Tokugawa Yoshinobu]] formally stepped down to restore [[Emperor Meiji]] to nominal full power.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Political Succession in The Tokugawa Bakufu: Abe Masahiro's Rise to Power, 1843–1845 |first=Conrad |last=Totman |journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies |volume=26 |year=1966 |pages=102–124 |doi=10.2307/2718461 |jstor=2718461}}</ref> He issued the imperial decree of constitutionalism<ref>{{Cite web|title=御誓文ノ趣旨ニ基ク立憲政體樹立ニ關スル詔書（明治八年四月十四日）：文部科学省 |url=https://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/hakusho/html/others/detail/1317934.htm |website=www.mext.go.jp |access-date=2024-03-19}}</ref> on 14 April 1875. The [[Meiji Constitution]] was adopted on 11 February 1889.<ref name="britannica1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Meiji-Constitution|title=Meiji Constitution {{!}} 1889, Japan|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2017-08-21|language=en}}</ref> The emperor of Japan became an active ruler with considerable political power over foreign policy and diplomacy which was shared with an elected [[National Diet|Imperial Diet]].<ref name="britannica1"/> The Japanese subjects gained many rights and duties.

The constitution described the emperor (in Article 4) as: "the head of the Empire, combining in Himself the rights of sovereignty", and he "exercises them, according to the provisions of the present Constitution". His rights included to sanction and promulgate laws, to execute them and to exercise "supreme command of the Army and the Navy". The liaison conference created in 1893 also made the emperor the leader of the [[Imperial General Headquarters]]. On Meiji's death in 1912 and the accession of his son [[Emperor Taishō|Taishō]], who suffered from ill-health and various disabilities, many of these powers were assumed by the Imperial Diet in an era known as the [[Taishō Democracy]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Ishida |editor-first1=Takeshi |editor-last2=Kraus |editor-first2=Ellis S |date=1989 |title=Democracy in Japan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J8LFNt_PHqMC&pg=PA7 |publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press |page=7 |isbn=978-0822954149 }}</ref>