Japanese government institutions have developed rapidly in the Meiji period in response to the Freedom and People's Rights Movement, a grassroots campaign demanding greater popular participation in politics.

The leaders of this movement include Itagaki Taisuke and Ōkuma Shigenobu.

Itō Hirobumi, the first Prime Minister of Japan, responds by writing the Meiji Constitution, which is promulgated on February 11, 1889.

The new constitution establishes an elected lower house, the House of Representatives, but its powers are restricted.

Only two percent of the population are eligible to vote, and legislation proposed in the House requires the support of the unelected upper house, the House of Peers.

Both the cabinet of Japan and the Japanese military are directly responsible not to the elected legislature but to the Emperor.

Concurrently, the Japanese government has also developed a form of Japanese nationalism under which Shinto has become the state religion and the Emperor is declared a living god.

Schools nationwide instill patriotic values and loyalty to the Emperor.