Finally the Japanese National Assembly, the Diet, has started its yearly ordinary session.
Every year in Japan the periodic session begins in January. It lasts usually for 150 days or so. But as so many bills are left without voting in either of the Houses in every year, some claim that the national assembly session should be opened all through the year. However since the first modern Diet session was convened in 1890, no Imperial Cabinets or more democratic Cabinets after WWII have accepted such a bold request. Instead, after the ordinary Diet session ends in the early summer, an extraordinary Diet session is called in autumn every year for 50 to 90 days or so.
One major difference between Japan and the US in terms of the relationship between the national assembly and the head of the Government is that the prime minister of Japan has a statutory duty to attend some sessions, committees, or panels held in the Diet. He is requested to directly answer questions lawmakers in the Upper House and the Lower House deliver. Usually such a "Q and A" session is televised all over Japan through the public broadcasting body NHK. In addition, nowadays the Diet administrative office broadcasts most of sessions held in the Diet through the Internet.
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When Japan was governed by the samurai shogun before the Meiji Restoration, there was no national assembly. The ruler of Japan was the top of all the samurai clans and samurai-class members, who was called the shogun. The shogun lived in the Edo Castle, Tokyo, which is today used as the Imperial Palace. Under the shogun several samurais, who were also heads of independent clans ruling their own local domains, formed a kind of the Cabinet. Except matters the shogun directly handled, all the political, administrative, and judicial matters were discussed and judged on by these top samurai executives doing their duties in the Edo Castle. Therefore no national assembly was in Japan under the rule of the sword.
As the samurai class was above the farmer class and the merchant/craftsman classes, everybody thought that politics and the national administration must be monopolized by the elite samurais. Of course there were the emperor and the noble-class in Kyoto. But, they lost political power in the 12th century. The imperial family and noble-class families had even no feuds, while each of major samurai clans occupied their own feud with the head of its clan as a lord over farmers and townsmen living in his territory. Indeed Japan was a rigid class society before the modernization and Westernization started with the Meiji Restoration, a kind of civil war to restore imperial power in 1860s. Therefore no national assembly was in Japan under the rule of the sword.
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After anti-shogun samurais, tied up with the imperial family, toppled the shogun government in 1868, they gradually started to realize a need to formulate the constitution and form a national assembly, that is, a legislative body.
They made vast research on political situations in Europe and America. Consequently the Meiji-era political elites, namely leaders of ex-anti-shogun samurais, decided to adopt the German political system, since political systems in the US and the UK were too much advanced for Japan in terms of an acceptance level of democracy.
In this context the Iwakura Mission was important.
The Iwakura Mission or Iwakura Embassy was a Japanese diplomatic journey around the world, initiated in 1871 by the oligarchs of the Meiji period.
The Iwakura mission followed several such missions previously sent by the Shogunate, such as the Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860), the First Japanese Embassy to Europe (1862), and the Second Japanese Embassy to Europe (1863).
The mission was named after and headed by Iwakura Tomomi in the role of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador, assisted by four vice-ambassadors, three of whom (Ōkubo Toshimichi, Kido Takayoshi, and Itō Hirobumi) were also ministers in the Japanese government. The historian Kume Kunitake was the official diarist, keeping a detailed log of all events and impressions. Also included were a number of administrators and scholars, totaling 48 people.
On December 23, 1871 the mission sailed from Yokohama on the SS America (1869), bound for San Francisco. From there it continued to Washington, D.C., then to Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Germany, Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, Bavaria, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. On the return journey, Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong, and Shanghai were also visited, although much more briefly. The mission returned home September 13, 1873, almost two years after setting out.During this mission, the Japanese envoys met with Bismarck (1815-1898) of Germany. Japanese were all highly impressed by this great politician in the 19th century Europe. Even Ito imitated the way Bismarck smoked after he returned to Japan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iwakura_Mission
As senior leaders such as Okubo and Kido died earlier, Ito became a leading figure of Meiji Japan. Then in 1882 Ito was dispatched by the then Japanese Government to Germany to learn the Prussian Constitution. After returning to Japan, Ito became the first prime minister of Japan in 1885. Then the Government enacted the Constitution in 1890. So, narrowly before the start of the 20th century, Japan could evolve into a modern constitutional monarchy.
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