How powerful was the Japanese Emperor 1868-1945?

I read all sorts of things and it seems like there is some divide on how powerful the emperor was during 1868-1945. Was the emperor a constitutional monarch during 1868-1945 or only after it? Or actually during and after considering he has a role in both constitutions? How much power was there in his hands? According to the first constitution he had absolute power, but in really it seems like his advisers (ministers) had the actual power. He was mostly a figure head even during 1868-1945 used by the bureaucrats of the time to justify their own power claiming it is coming from the divine emperor. Did I got that pretty much right?

Hirohito did nothing wrong.

bump would be interesting to know as well

All I remember is that Japan was first a Liberal Constitutional Monarchy then when the great depression hit they went full Imperialists. But how much power the Emperor had is disputed, especially since the Allies used the Emperor as a puppet to pacify Japan.
Emperor was a good boi didn't du nuffin.

In my opinion, from experience reading about the Chinese Emperors, is that they only had absolute power if they took part in military affairs, commanding troops and fighting the enemy. If not they were controlled either by the bureaucracy or the military and the Emperor was only a religious symbol in nature. Considering the Japanese Emperors only was a religious figure and had minimal tradition of actually running the country I find it hard to believe that they actually wielded any significant power.

Theoretically he exercised full power, but rarely ever exercised that right beyond appointing PMs in the mess that was interwar Japanese politics

As far as I read according the constitution he had the right to declare war and control the army and navy, but in really he was just getting briefings from people that even had lies in them especially when losing in WW2. The Diet was actually not able to decide if to surrender or not and the emperor was basically forcing them to do it by declaring to the people, to whom he was the real power, that Japan has lost the war. There were military people trying to stop that announcement.

If we go further back it is actually kind of ironic how the imperialists used the imperial family to gain power by claiming that the Shogunate is week, because of the opening of the country, but essentially embraced western technology and political systems when they got in power.

It's not at all surprising when you realize Boshin was basically revenge for Sekigahara by all the disaffected Daimyo who sided with the Toyotomi, expelling the barbarians was just a good excuse

>In my opinion, from experience reading about the Chinese Emperors, is that they only had absolute power if they took part in military affairs, commanding troops and fighting the enemy.
Other way around. The Chink Emperor left the fighting to the military men while he had tremendous administrative powers. The Dayuanshuai (Grand Marshall) is the highest ranker in Chinese military campaigns and is the emperor's proxy during massive wars.

In fact it was very rare for Chinese emperors to take the field. I can only count very few of them, and usually its the founders. Notable exceptions to the founders were people like Yongle, Taizong, Wu of Han, Kangxi, and Qianlong.

As for you, OP, Meiji was the only powerful emperor in virtue of the restoration and the transition.

After him it was back to Emperors being mere figureheads as the descendants of samurai and daimyo still run the show, now as ministers.

How much power in really did even Meiji have? What did he achieve through his own power? Is it that even possible to tell as the ministers claim they work based on his will? He was like 15 when he become emperor. By the time the constitution was made he was older, but probably already under full bureaucratic control.

Maybe 50% of the political power

He wasn't all mighty or anything, but close to maybe FDR-tier.

>Meiji
Meiji was very young when he became Emperor and because of this he actually did not have a great deal of input in his own restoration. Meiji did oversee some things such as renaming Edo to Tokyo and adapting state Shinto. Meiji did pioneer change, modernisation and westernisation and worked in cooperation with his government (typical of constitutional monarchies at the time). Meiji was an important point of diplomacy and meet with various foreign dimplomats and figures like King George V and Tsar Nicholas. His power was not major but was still there, he acknowledged governing was best left in the hands of the government so generally left the duties to them. Later in his life Meiji was a sickly man with issues like diabetes, urimea (I've even heard obesity) so his input was mostly gone because of that.
Also he was ugly when was younger but very handsome as aged.

>Taisho
Meiji's son Taisho was born sick, he had lead poisoning from birth. Taisho suffered many conditions like chronic fevers and poor ability in keeping awake as well as being physically weak. During his coronation he rolled his speech up into a telescope and simply spied around the room. Because of his somewhat constant illness and seeming mental issues (allegedly also suffered anxiety) he was extremely hands off, he knew he could not function as a proper leader so he was not forced by his government to be powerless, he allowed his son Hirohito to become prince regent in the 20's and he assumed what Taisho's duties would have been.

>Hirohito
Probably the most controversial because the idea of him having power links with his role in ww2 which is debated. Hirohito seemingly desired a monarchy with less obligation which is evidenced by his trip to Europe and loving the casual nature of the British monarchy who showed him fun and friendship he felt his duties as EofJ prevented him from, it's from that you can get an idea that he did have a role in governance. will cont if interested.

By all means, cont

>he acknowledged governing was best left in the hands of the government so generally left the duties to them
Any sources?

Meiji and his world

Continuing on Hirohito.
Hirohito's power during ww2 is still debated. It seems like he became a yes man for his militistric government and often stamped or signed of on orders which may have been carried out anyway. Hirohito seem to go along with the war and his government actions, he did send the message to civilians in Saipan to commit suicide which suggest he was aware of things occurring around him despite many claims he was totally ignorant. Hirohitos most important role was surrendering and stepping in when Japan was doomed. He would be a powerless figurehead post occupation and became more interested in marine biology and Disney. Having him power and excusing him of any investigation allowed the US to greatly influence Japan.

>How powerful was the Japanese Emperor 1868-1945?

they had more than one in that time

>Meiji was the only powerful emperor

nigga was literally a puppet of a military junta

His power level> 9000

why did japs tried to emulate prussians so much after this revolution
is this why they suddenly weren't content with their island and started to satisfy their imperialistic tendencies against the world?

It is because they had no idea how to build their own government and jut copied someone else by looking at what was around and conceivably efficient.

i remember anecdote from someone that they tried to do everything better and they thought that separating japan states into even squares on map (ignoring mountains, rivers etc) was a good idea from an administrative perspective

Japan wanted to have a military capable of defending their sovereignty against foreign powers. This requires a navy, and a navy requires lots of raw materials that Japan simple doesn't have in large amounts. So they had to invade other countries to acquire those things. In a sense, they believed that the only way to defend themselves against imperialism was to become imperialist themselves. The way to stop being bullied is to become a bigger, tougher bully.

I would say it was a little different. While what you say is true, there was also the perception at the time that to be a Great Power, you need to have colonies, which was very much true. Defensive mechanisms aside the Japanese definitely didn't want to be seen as weak, 'cause honour and shit. And how could the emperor, a descendent from gods be weak?