In 1881, Ito Hirobumi announced that the government would draft the Meiji Constitution in a decade.

It was adopted on February 11, 1889 and went into effect in Japan on November 29, 1890. The first Diet of Japan convened on that day as well. The constitution stipulated that a representative assembly based on the Prussian Diet be established, while keeping all sovereign power in the hands of the Emperor.

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