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Show PARTY SYSTEM GROWING E JAPAN By K. S. INUI Department of Political Science, University Uni-versity of Southern California. , The privy couril of Japan is perhaps" per-haps" a unique institution under tho Japanese constitution. It Is neither legislative nor executive. It is deliberative de-liberative and advisory. The council may he called upon to give advice to the emperor on any question of importance which comes under his .prerogative except budget and taxation. Of course theoretically the mikado i Is entirely free to adopt or reject It. But seldom has he ever refused to ac-I ac-I cept it. I The cbuncil is composed of 39 members, mem-bers, including ten cabinet ministers who are actual administrators. Theo- retically these advisers are personally appointed for life by the emperor. But as a matter of fact tho council is a self-perpetuating body. The members are proposed often by the cabinet ministers min-isters from among those who gave Ja,pan meritorious services, such as ex-prime ministers, ministers and ambassadors. am-bassadors. As the emperor is an impersonal and non-political 'personality, his advisers, ad-visers, too, are not to be affiliated with any political party. To quote, "There is no law to prohibit councillors council-lors being members of a political party, but wo have precedent in the expulsion of Count Okuma from the council in 1891 because he conferred with Ilngaki, the leader of the Liberal party." Neither do they represent people directly di-rectly or indirectly. They nave no constituents whom they must serve or to whom they aro responsible. Sut becauso of their training and natural sympathies, they usually favor the government In the early days of tho Japanese constitutional existence, the cabinet depended upon the support and endorsement en-dorsement of the council ln their administration. ad-ministration. But today they must look to voters for their guidance and advice. When the party system completely takes possession of Japan this previously pre-viously useful machinery of the Japanese Japa-nese constitutional plan will los$ its original significance. |