Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis

by Jared Diamond

In order to make this massive borrowing from the West palatable to Japanese traditionalists, innovations and borrowings in Meiji Japan were often claimed to be not new at all, but just returns to Japan’s traditional ways. For example, when the emperor himself in 1889 promulgated Japan’s first constitution, based heavily on the German constitution, in his speech he invoked his ascent “to the Throne of a lineal succession unbroken for ages eternal,” and “the right of sovereignty of the State [that] we have inherited from Our Ancestors.” Similarly, new rituals invented for the imperial court during the Meiji Era were claimed to be timeless old court rituals. This reframing of innovations as supposedly retained traditions—the phenomenon of “invented traditions” often invoked by innovators in other countries besides Japan—contributed to the success of Meiji leaders in carrying out drastic changes.