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| 1885, April 18 |
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The CONVENTION OF TIANJIN was negotiated by It Hirobumi and Li Hongzhang (1823–1901). Both powers agreed to withdraw their troops and to inform the other of any intention to send them back to Korea. Although negotiated on equal terms, this was clearly a victory for Japan, as China was losing its claim to suzerain control over the Korean peninsula. An attempt by Russia to gain a protectorate over Korea was prevented. Great Britain occupied K mun Island (Port Hamilton) in Korea (April 26), but withdrew (Feb. 27, 1887). | 1 |
| The Council of State was dissolved, and a cabinet system was established along German lines, with a premier (Count It Hirobumi) and nine departmental ministers responsible to him. | 2 |
| Tsubouchi Shy (1859–1935) published The Essence of the Novel, a work that urged the use of realism in writing Western-style fiction. He also translated the complete works of Shakespeare into Japanese. Soon thereafter (1887–89), Futabatei Shimei (1864–1909) wrote Japan's first modern novel, The Floating Cloud, in a mixed literary-vernacular style. | 3 |
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| 1886, May 1–1887, July 29 |
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A treaty revision conference, conducted by Inoue Kaoru as foreign minister, was held in Tokyo, but it failed to obtain the abolition of extraterritoriality. Individual negotiations were subsequently carried on by Inoue's successor,  kuma Shigenobu. | 4 |
| This marked the beginning of a period of rapid economic expansion with government paper-making and cotton-spinning plants (200 steam factories in Japan by 1890), the extension of railroads (959 miles of government lines and 2,905 miles of private lines by 1901), an increase in steamship tonnage (15,000 by 1893 and 1,522,000 by 1905), and the unification of telegraph and postal systems (1886). In addition, a network of police stations was devised for all of Japan. | 5 |
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| 1887 |
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| As work on the constitution neared completion, the government, using the newly enacted Peace Preservation Law, outlawed 570 opposition party leaders from living within three miles of the imperial palace in Tokyo. This restrictive measure was the culmination of over a decade of similar efforts by the government to control the press and the assembly of oppositional elements. | 6 |
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| 1888, April |
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| The Privy Council was created under Premier It Hirobumi as an advisory body to the emperor to rule on the constitution and related laws; later, it became the highest organ of state in matters concerning constitutional law. Kuroda Kiyotaka (1840–1900) succeeded It as premier. The general staffs of the army and navy were detached. | 7 |
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| 1889, Feb. 11 |
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| The NEW CONSTITUTION WAS PROMULGATED as an imperial gift to the emperor's people. The emperor's powers were carefully guarded, including the right to declare war and make peace, and the power to issue ordinances having the force of law. There was to be a bicameral Diet with an upper house of peers and representatives of merit and wealth (363 members) and a lower house elected through limited suffrage (463 members). The imperial institution was placed at an inviolable level above the Diet. The Diet had a restricted control over state finances. | 8 |
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| Dec |
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| Count Yamagata Aritomo became premier and hence leader of the first cabinet under the new constitution. | 9 |
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