ABSTRACT
The Chōshū military commander and conservative politician Torio Koyata aggressively promoted a constitutional parliamentarianism which fundamentally rejected liberal Westernization. Torio sought to develop an alternative form of parliamentarianism based on social values informed by Buddhism and neo-Confucianism. Torio’s participation in the national discussion to win support for his political views was facilitated by the use of two themes in his argument for a Japanese-style representative government: the reflection of “public opinion” in governance which he equated with his interpretation of Mencian thought, namely, benevolent monarchy reflecting the popular will, and the reinterpretation of liberal terms such as liberty, autonomy, equality, and natural law to have Confucian and Buddhist meanings. This parliamentarian construct was designed to offset the rise of individualism, value-pluralism and economic liberalism, and protect a system of ethical cultivation under a benevolent Emperor which he saw as the source of personal self-realization. Torio also perceived this system as the source for the national ideological solidarity necessary for independence and military strength during a period when Japan was still vulnerable to Imperialist encroachment. This discourse further had, to a significant degree, egalitarian consequences for perceptions of the people’s inclusion in politics and impacted a later generation of nationalist ideologues who would come to power in the 1930s.
