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Under the Rising Sun, a Japan Interactive AAR

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Party: NLP

[Militarist]
[Masters of the Empire, +4; Constitutional bonus, +1]

~ Prince Date Munenari, War and Navy Minister, Chief of the Army General Staff, Chief of the Navy General Staff, and Privy Councillor
 
Final Tally (Regionalism and Weight Added):

Chugoku: National Liberals - 29 Seats, Unity and Honor - 2 Seats
Tohuku: National Liberals - 35 Seats, Unity and Honor - 3 Seats, Independents - 1 Seat.
Shikoku: National Liberals - 7 Seats, Loyalist Association - 12 Seats, Unity and Honor - 0 Seats.
Kansai: National Liberals - 40 Seats, Loyalist Association - 27 Seats, Kamikaze Party - 53 Seats, Unity and Honor - 1 Seat.
Kanto: National Liberals - 40 Seats, Loyalist Association - 69 Seats, Unity and Honor - 1 Seat.
Kyushu: National Liberals - 54 Seats, Unity and Honor - 5 Seats.
Chubu: National Liberals - 78 Seats, Unity and Honor - 7 Seats.

Total: National Liberals - 283 Seats (61%), Kamikaze Party - 53 Seats (11%), Loyalist Association - 108 Seats (23%), Unity and Honor - 19 Seats (4%), Independents - 1 Seat.
 
Election of 1868​

The election of 1868 seemed to almost look like a repeat from the last election. The parties never really changed, and the leadership never really changed as well. However, just because it looked the same on the surface, did not mean it was identical to the last event. What happened this time around was the formation of the first political alliances, and attempts to beat back the might of the National Liberals.

Satake Yoshizone, the heir to the mighty Satake family, wanted to organize the opposition of the Diet into a mighty party, one that would sweep away the National Liberals with their combined strength. He asked the Loyalists, Unity and Honor, and Kamikaze parties to join him in this plan. However, as soon as talks began, they quickly fell apart. Sakamoto Naotari was unsure that Satake, a man from a family of Shogunate traitors, would make a good leader in the eyes of the Emperor, and opted out of joining a coalition with him. What drove the line even further was Satake Yoshizone supposedly pulling a "If you do not put me into office, I will refuse to support you any further" comment, which only served to drive the wedge between him and the Loyalists. The Unity and Honor Party refused to cooperate with Satake until he accepted pacifism, an ideal that many other conservatives did not want, for they supported intervention into Korea.

The biggest divide that ended Satake's hopes of a united opposition was the announcement that the Kamikaze and the National Liberals would be competing together in Kansai on a joint-ticket, and serve as partners in a Diet coalition. With one party leaving him for the liberals, another refusing to cooperate with a pragmatic, and a third being stubbornly for pacifism, Satake called it quits on all of them, and became the first independent seated in the Diet in its history.

While Satake was failing miserably in uniting the Right, the Left steamrolled the election once again. While suffering in Kanto and Shikoku, The National Liberals and their KAP allies swamped the vote in Kansai, and the other major regions in Japan. The failure of the right to unite and strategize the election led to the Left taking advantage and beating out most of the parties. The biggest suprise of the election though came from the Unity and Honor Party. Uesugi Narinori lost many members during the Oshiro term, but he gained a key ally, Hajamoto Yoshihiro. The wealthy economist managed to fund Uesugi's campaign, and not only did he secure the Niigata electorate, but many other electorates as well across the country, for a total of 19 seats, almost doubled the seats from the last election.

However, the Liberals and the Kamikaze were deeply entrenched with each other, gaining more then 300 seats in the Diet, a healthy majority. With this, many considered the Liberals having a grand chance of securing a mandate, but it would be up to the Emperor to decide if the Liberals would have the PMship. Many liberals worried that the stacked conservative Privy Council would hurt their chances, and lead to an unwanted minority government. Conservatives argued that this was fair, and they deserved the majority on the PC. The Emperor though, was fed up with this. He wanted his Privy Council to be as apolitical as possible, to advise him without drawing in political concerns to help him run the country to the best of its ability. He needed a way to make sure the liberals and conservatives maintained equal footing in the Privy Council for the best way possible. He needed to act soon, else the Diet would grow restless...

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Player Actions Needed: Wait...
 
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​

In light of recent events, many of our fellow nobles, nobles who served us with conviction in the Boshin War, have brought to our attention the political divide in our Privy Council. The Privy Council is an apolitical body, used to advise us in how to manage our country to the best of its ability. Yet, we cannot ignore the cries of political biased in our Privy Council. We have decided to balance it out between both liberals and conservatives so that political bias will not be a thing on our Privy Council.

We decree the following:

Baron Mori Takachika ((Qwerty7)) of Yamagata be made Count of Yamagata and remain on the Privy Council

Marquis Oshiro Kazuki ((Somberg)) of Okayama shall be put on the Privy Council

Count Hosokawa Mitsuhide ((Tempest)) of Kunamoto shall be put on the Privy Council

Marquis Uesugi, Prince Sakamoto, and Prince Date shall remain on the Privy Council.

I ask that this new Privy Council advise me on who be given the honor of being Prime Minister for this term of the Diet.

-Emperor Meiji
--------------------------------------
Player Actions Needed: I am handing the Privy Council the power to advise me on which person should be appointed as Prime Minister. They can appoint anyone they want out of the Player-Base, but you will have some MIL should it not be Somberg (Leader of the Majority Party), and the MIL will be bigger if it is not a National-Liberal.

Sample Ballot:

((For Privy Council Only))

Prime Minister: [Insert Player]

[Rank of Nobility]

Voting closes Wednesday at 9:00 PM EST or Thursday at 1:00 AM GMT.
 
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((Privy Council))

Prime Minister: Tanabe Shinzou ((TJDS))

[Count]

I do not feel it appropriate for the Prime Minister to serve on the Privy Council. Lord Tanabe, while I admit I disagree with on many occasions, is a satisfactory alternative to Lord Oshiro. If Lord Oshiro would like to abstain from voting on Privy Council matters while he serves then I will endorse him as Prime Minister, but for now we must prevent this conflict of interest.

- Count Mori Takachika
 
Firehound15 said:
((->Emperor talks about wanting to avoid a partisan PC.
->Immediately makes the Prime Minister a member of it.
))
Click to expand...

((As he should be.))

Qwerty7 said:
I do not feel it appropriate for the Prime Minister to serve on the Privy Council. Lord Tanabe, while I admit I disagree with on many occasions, is a satisfactory alternative to Lord Oshiro. If Lord Oshiro would like to abstain from voting on Privy Council matters while he serves then I will endorse him as Prime Minister, but for now we must prevent this conflict of interest.
Click to expand...

And yet the Lord Mouri sees no conflict of interest whatever transpiring from Prince Sakamoto's membership of the Privy Council. If the Leader of the Opposition can advise the Emperor in a personal capacity, then why not his Prime Minister, and vice versa? It appears that the Hon. Lord only sees alleged "conflicts of interest" when they affect his political opponents, and not his political allies.

I do not feel it is the role of the Privy Council to appoint Japan's Head of Government - that should be ultimately left to its Head of State. As Marquis Oshiro is the incumbent and the leader of the governing party, he should be appointed by right until such time as the Emperor or his Parliament loses confidence in him.

PM: Oshiro

[Count]

-- Hosokawa-dono, PC.
 
I would like to make some adjustments to my previous construction plans.
I will open a Luxury Clothes Factory in Chubu.
I will open a Cement factory in Kansai
At this point in time I no longer wish for a loan, and won't be opening a furniture factory or a regular clothes factory.

- Kusaribe Kinzo
 
((The following proposals are to be voted on separately))

I propose that Lord Satake be appointed as an appeals court judge in the appeal court of Kyoto. He did write the legal code of our great and modern nation, so he would be a good choice for managing the courts.

Second, I propose the following act to help improve the education of the people of Japan with some inspiration taken from the German model:

The Education Improvement Act​

1. All Japanese and Ainu children between the ages of five and sixteen, regardless of social status, gender, religion, or any other belief, shall enjoy the privilege of compulsory and free education, funding provided by the state.
2. Children whose parents are farmers or are otherwise in the lower class are entitled to an extra school year of instruction.
3. Teaching will be recognized as an official profession in Japan, and teachers shall receive a set salary which the Ministry of Education decides based on their effectiveness in educating their students (to be measured in yearly standardized tests).
4. The state will provide funding to build schools, especially in rural and hard to reach/low income regions, and supervisors will be sent to each school to ensure quality education.
5. Curriculum shall be strictly secular, though the Shinto, Confucian, and Buddhist (all branches taught, with an emphasis on the most relevant ones in Japanese life) religions shall be offered as recommended courses. There will be an emphasis on science and technology as well as the Japanese national identity, to promote cultural traditions and modernity at the same time. Though the curriculum shall be secular, students shall be continuously reminded that the Emperor is the Son of Amaterasu and must be treated with proper respect.
6. Young children shall be given places in kindergartens where they can play with educational toys, while older children shall devote much of their time to extensive homework designed to reinforce what they learned.
7. All students will undergo compulsory physical education as part of their primary curriculum. At the age of sixteen and after the conclusion of primary studies, male students are to undergo two years of compulsory military training, unless they present a certificate of admission to an accredited university beforehand. By age eighteen, all Japanese subjects, regardless of gender, must demonstrate knowledge of how to handle a katana effectively.
8. Universities following the German model are to be established in major Japanese cities to allow students to receive optional higher education.
9.((Reform selected: Good school system if not already selected))

~Prince Sakamoto
 
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((Private - Privy Council))

Prime Minister: Ōshiro Kazuki

[Marquis]

I wish to echo what Lord Hosokawa has stated, as I do not understand the conflict of interests which Lord Mori seems so concerned by. The Privy Council is meant to be an apolitical that advises the Emperor. One's position as prime minister would hardly do anything but provide the Emperor an opportunity to also hear from the leader of his government. Are we to deny Prince Sakamoto the position of prime minister should his party win because it would create a "conflict of interests" as he too is a member of the Privy Council? I know that I would support Prince Sakamoto as prime minister if his party won control of the Diet, as it would petty to deny him a position that he earned through his party's victory. I ask my fellow Councillors to carefully consider this as they decide who will be the next prime minister.

~ Ōshiro Kazuki, Marquis of Okayama
 
Prince Sakamoto, I am utterly appalled by the radical nature of your proposed education reforms. There is absolutely nothing wrong with offering compulsory education to all Japanese -- that policy I hope we can all endorse -- but the idea of secular education (when, must I remind you, the Son of Amaterasu is our Head of State) combined with the total lack of any physical education programme outside of post-graduation national service goes against the very spiritual and martial fibre which binds together the Japanese nation! Such a policy smacks of Republicanism, and must be opposed.

Furthermore, to offer optional tutoring in only one school of Buddhism, and a relatively minor one at that outside of the martial classes, is, I fear, a recipe for disaster and civil strife. I urge you to reconsider the nature of your proposed reforms, and to bring them more into line with Japanese culture and traditions.

-- Hosokawa-dono.
 
LordTempest said:
Prince Sakamoto, I am utterly appalled by the radical nature of your proposed education reforms. There is absolutely nothing wrong with offering compulsory education to all Japanese -- that policy I hope we can all endorse -- but the idea of secular education (when, must I remind you, the Son of Amaterasu is our Head of State) combined with the total lack of any physical education programme outside of post-graduation national service goes against the very spiritual and martial fibre which binds together the Japanese nation! Such a policy smacks of Republicanism, and must be opposed.

Furthermore, to offer optional tutoring in only one school of Buddhism, and a relatively minor one at that outside of the martial classes, is, I fear, a recipe for disaster and civil strife. I urge you to reconsider the nature of your proposed reforms, and to bring them more into line with Japanese culture and traditions.

-- Hosokawa-dono.
Click to expand...

Sir,

I appreciate your pointing out of the flaws in my education proposal and agree with your implied suggestions for improvement. I shall include a physical education clause and clause for optional education in all branches of Buddhism.

~Sakamoto
 
Perhaps not all the schools of Buddhism, but merely those most relevant to the people of Japan? I still feel that as these subjects are essential facets of Japanese culture, it should be compulsory for all Japanese to be knowledgeable and conversant in them. Not every Japanese will join the armed forces, but every Japanese should know how to wield a katana.

-- Hosokawa-dono
 
LordTempest said:
Perhaps not all the schools of Buddhism, but merely those most relevant to the people of Japan? I still feel that as these subjects are essential facets of Japanese culture, it should be compulsory for all Japanese to be knowledgeable and conversant in them. Not every Japanese will join the armed forces, but every Japanese should know how to wield a katana.

-- Hosokawa-dono
Click to expand...
Thank you for clarifying.

~Sakamoto
 
If in the future civilians are appointed to the, after all civilian, post of Minister of War; then they will not be able to exercise the same powers that Marshal Prince Date has so efficiently wielded in his term. It is my hope that the administration will eventually embrace the intended system of appointing a military Chief of the General Staff. On a related note, it is my hope that upper echelon officers of the Imperial forces will still take field commands, as a rising Nippon cannot afford to leave some of its most talented commanders in an office and off the battlefield. This legislation will in some small way help to address these problems:

Martial Discipline Act
I. Active duty officers of the Japanese military are henceforth prohibited from simultaneously holding office as Ministers of State.
II. The overall commander of the Japanese military will fill the position of Chief of the General Staff as appointed by the Head of Government, working with their civilian counterpart in the War Ministry.
III. Section one does not apply to holders of honorary ranks.

​
His Imperial Majesty's government can't be expected to find and appoint seven regional administrators all by themselves, and yet having the same largely hereditary administrators for decades could ultimately fail to meet both the NLP ideals of representative government and the Loyalist concerns of preventing neo-Daimyoism from threatening the Emperor's central authority. I propose the following solution:

Administrative Representation Act
After each general election, the Privy Council shall advise the Emperor to appoint as governor of each region a member of the party that holds the most seats in that region, to serve until the next general election.

- Admiral Unryu Raizo
 
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I was not aware that Japan had become a federal state, and therefore had any need for regional governors, appointed or otherwise.

-- Hosokawa-dono.
 
As you well know, Count Hosokawa, Marshal Prince Date appointed former Daimyos as the administrators of the various regions of Nippon during the transitional period where he served the Emperor as Chancellor. It is exactly because the government cannot be expected to review these administrators every term, not with all of the other duties they must attend to, that a more efficient system be enacted; one that prevents the same unsupervised officials from building their own private fiefdoms in the Emperor's lands over the generations.

- Admiral Unryu Raizo
 
Le Corbusier said:
As you well know, Count Hosokawa, Marshal Prince Date appointed former Daimyos as the administrators of the various regions of Nippon during the transitional period where he served the Emperor as Chancellor. It is exactly because the government cannot be expected to review these administrators every term, not with all of the other duties they must attend to, that a more efficient system be enacted; one that prevents the same unsupervised officials from building their own private fiefdoms in the Emperor's lands over the generations.
Click to expand...

So why should they not be abolished, now that the transitional period is nearing its close? Do we have reason to fear another provincial uprising?

-- Hosokawa-dono
 
Le Corbusier said:
As you well know, Count Hosokawa, Marshal Prince Date appointed former Daimyos as the administrators of the various regions of Nippon during the transitional period where he served the Emperor as Chancellor. It is exactly because the government cannot be expected to review these administrators every term, not with all of the other duties they must attend to, that a more efficient system be enacted; one that prevents the same unsupervised officials from building their own private fiefdoms in the Emperor's lands over the generations.
Click to expand...

The administrators is a temporary office planned to last 10 years after the War, in order to oversee the creation of prefectures, and are appointed by His Imperial Majesty. They are not intended to serve as a sort of Federal governors, because Japan is a unitary state.
 
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