Imperial Diet of Japan

The Imperial Diet (帝国議会, Teikoku Gikai) served as the legislature of the Empire of Japan from 1890 until 1947. Created under the Meiji Constitution of 1889, it opened its first session on November 29, 1890 and held ninety-two sessions in all. It comprised the House of Peers (貴族院), made up of imperial family members, nobles and imperial appointees, and the elected House of Representatives (衆議院), for which universal male suffrage was introduced in 1925. While sovereignty resided with the Emperor, legislation required the Diet's "consent" and national budgets its approval, giving it real leverage over governments.

From the 1910s to the early 1930s it became customary for the majority party in the lower house to form the cabinet. Party cabinets ended after the May 15 Incident of 1932 and the influence of the military and bureaucracy grew. The Diet Building in Nagatachō was completed in November 1936. After war broke out with China, the Diet passed the National General Mobilization Law in 1938, delegating sweeping control over labour, materials and expression to the government and so weakening its own position.

During the wartime period the Diet's independence was progressively eroded. In February 1940 Representative Saitō Takao questioned the conduct of the war in his "anti-military speech" and was expelled the following month. That year the political parties dissolved themselves and the Taisei Yokusankai (Imperial Rule Assistance Association) was founded in October. In the April 1942 general election candidates were officially "recommended"; recommended candidates won 381 of 466 seats, and nearly all members then joined the Imperial Rule Assistance Political Association. The Diet largely ratified decisions of the government and military, though the election of non-recommended members and later criticism of the Tōjō cabinet show it was never wholly silent.

After the defeat, a revised election law in December 1945 enfranchised women, and thirty-nine women were elected in April 1946. The ninetieth session then debated and passed the Constitution of Japan. The final session closed on March 31, 1947, and when the new constitution took effect on May 3 the Imperial Diet was reconstituted as the National Diet (国会), "the highest organ of state power", with the House of Peers replaced by an elected House of Councillors.