Freedom and People's Rights Movement

The Freedom and People's Rights Movement (自由民権運動, Jiyū Minken Undō) was a Japanese political and social movement for democracy during the Meiji period. It pursued the formation of an elected legislature, revision of the unequal treaties with the United States and European countries, the institution of civil rights, and the reduction of centralized taxation. The movement prompted the Meiji government to establish a constitution in 1889 and a diet in 1890; on the other hand, it failed to bring the government under parliamentary control, and its authority was ultimately repressed by the Meiji oligarchy.

The movement began with the 1874 submission of the Tosa Memorial, a petition calling for a representative assembly, by a group of former government councillors including Itagaki Taisuke, Gotō Shōjirō, and Etō Shimpei. It quickly gained momentum, evolving from local political societies of disaffected samurai into a nationwide movement involving rural landlords, wealthy peasants, and liberal intellectuals. The government responded with a mix of concessions, such as the Osaka Conference of 1875 and the establishment of prefectural assemblies, and repression, including the passage of restrictive laws on the press and public assembly.

The Political Crisis of 1881 led to the issuance of an Imperial Rescript promising a national assembly by 1890, which marked a major success for the movement and spurred the formation of Japan's first political parties: the Jiyūtō led by Itagaki and the Rikken Kaishintō led by Ōkuma Shigenobu. However, the severe economic depression of the early 1880s, caused by the government's deflationary policies, led to internal divisions and radicalization within the movement. A series of peasant uprisings, known as the gekka jiken (激化事件, 'intensification incidents'), alienated the movement's landowning leadership. Combined with intensified government suppression, this led to the dissolution of the Jiyūtō in 1884 and the decline of the movement as a cohesive national force.

Despite its ultimate failure to establish a party-based government, the Freedom and People's Rights Movement had a profound and lasting impact on the political development of modern Japan. It was directly responsible for the adoption of the Meiji Constitution and the establishment of the Imperial Diet, and it embedded the concepts of popular sovereignty and civil rights in the Japanese political discourse.