The First World War and Japan’s cabinet system: how the conflict changed the perception and reception of foreign constitutional models by Japanese elites (1912–1920)

The modern Japanese state, built on the Meiji Constitution (1889–1947), has long been understood as inspired by a Prussian model. Recent historiography, however, emphasises a paradigm shift in Japanese national identity after the First World War and the development of party politics in the 1920s. How did the experience of this conflict alter the vision of European constitutional frameworks and the choice of foreign models for interpreting Japan’s own political institutions? This article, while focusing on the cabinet system, addresses this question by analysing constitutional commentaries and reform projects by scholars, statesmen, and journalists across three chronological stages. First, it shows that doctrinal debates from 1912 to 1914 were polarised by ideologies favouring the German or British models. Second, it observes essential changes in information pipelines during the war, a detachment from Germany, and increasing praise for Britain’s resilience. Third, it argues that reform projects by influential actors in the war’s immediate aftermath were designed after the United Kingdom’s recent institutional evolutions. These considerations shed light on an early stage of the global dissemination of the Westminster model and suggest its influence went beyond the Dominions and the post-Second World War Commonwealth.