is a proposal to organize Japan into one circuit (''dō'') of

Hokkaido is Japan, Japan's Japanese archipelago, second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost Prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own List of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; th ...

and several new states (''shū'') that are each a combination of several

prefectures A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...

. The states and circuit are proposed to have greater regional autonomy, similar to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. It was proposed by the Junichiro Koizumi administration, but has yet to materialize. Most of the political parties in 2012 supported this reform.

History

An early proposal to replace the prefectures with states ''(-shū)'' and transform Japan into a

federal state A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...

was

Ueki Emori was a Japanese revolutionary democrat active in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement and one of the founders of the , which was a political party and joined the League for the Establishment of a National Assembly. Ueki was the son of a ...

's 1881 draft constitution ( :ja:東洋大日本国国憲按, ''Tōyō Dai-Nihon-koku kokken-an''), one of the more well-known and radical manifestations of the many so-called "private" (i.e. not government-sponsored) constitutional drafts that sprang from the

Freedom and People's Rights Movement The (abbreviated as ) or Popular Rights Movement was a Japanese political and social movement for democracy in the 1880s. It pursued the formation of an elected legislature, revision of the Unequal Treaties with the United States and Europea ...

in the 1880s.

National Diet Library The is the national library of Japan and among the largest libraries in the world. It was established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the in researching matters of public policy. The library is similar in purpose and scope to ...

: Modern Japan in Archives
UEKI Emori's Conception of a Constitution
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History

References

See also