Ito Hirobumi’s Constitutional Thought

Meiji Constitution occupies an extremely important position in Japan’s modern history, postwar Japanese right-wing forces have been seeking to abolish existing pacifist constitution in order to build a new constitution on the basis of the Meiji Constitution. Therefore, it seems very important to study the relevant contents about Meiji Constitution. In respect of the impact of the constitution, no one can compare with Ito Hirobumi, the “Father of the Meiji constitution.” Even we can say that the Meiji Constitution is the embodiment of Ito Hirobumi’s constitutional thought.This thesis is trying to take the constitutional thought of Ito Hirobumi as the center, through the exploration of the changing constitutional thinking of Ito Hirobumi, to clarify three issues, namely the background of the thinking transformation of Ito Hirobumi; And the original driving force behind the budding constitutional thought of Ito Hirobumi; Additional, the selected ideology of in Ito Hirobumi towards the foreign thoughts. Meanwhile, through analyzing the constituent elements of Ito Hirobumi’s constitutional thought, this thesis is trying to prove the impact of Ito Hirobumi’s Constitutional Thought on Meiji Constitution, the uniqueness of Meiji Constitution to coordinate the culture between the west and the east and the strong toughness of Meiji Constitution. In addition to the preamble, the thesis is specifically divided into the following four parts:The first part is Ito Hirobumi’s Constitutional Thought primary design which mainly analyzes the origins of imperial ideology of Ito Hirobumi’s Constitutional Thought and how he absorbs and integrates the external Constitutional Thought.The second part is the renovation of constitutional thought of Ito Hirobumi, including the choices of Ito Hirobumi’s constitutional path and the preparation to ensure the smooth implementation of constitutional evolution. And also the changing thought of constitutional thought in the constitutional preparation process.The third part is the performance of Ito Hirobumi’s constitutional thinking, which is mainly from the state system awareness, government organizations and political parties to explain the concept Ito Hirobumi’s Constitutional Thought.The fourth part is the conclusion part of the thesis, this section will describe the performance of Ito Hirobumi’s Constitutional Thought at different stages and make a simple comment on his constitutional thought.