Intellectual Change and Political Development in Early Modern Japan: Ono Azusa, a Case Study

This is a study of the effects of foreign education and contact on the thought pattern and activities of one of Japan's leading, yet little-known, intellectuals and political reformers. One of the key figures of the period 1874-1885, Ono Azusa is almost unknown because his achievements were credited to his political superior, Okuma Shigenobu. Ono Azusa (1853-1886) was among the first generation of Japanese students educated in the United States and Great Britain. As a result of his training in Western law, he became an admirer of the British and American constitutions and political systems and of the British utilitarian philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. In his political writings he attempted to introduce into Japan American and British concepts of political rights and constitutional theory, as well as Bentham's view on utilitarianism and government. In his monumental draft constitution, Kokken hanron, and the Rikken Kaishinto, Japan's second major political party, he sought to make theory reality and to create a moderate parliamentary system similar to that of Britain and based on the separation of powers, individual rights, and party politics appropriate to the Meiji scene. Ono's Kokken Hanron merges utilitarianism, loyalty to the Imperial household, and constitutionalism into a blueprint for parliamentary government remarkably similar to the current Japanese constitution. A case study on Ono Azusa, it is also a case study in modernization.