Constitutional revision research project

November 7 - Third convention of the Aikokusha. The convention decides that the Aikokusha will organize and engage in a nation-wide petition campaign calling for the creation of a national assembly.

March 17 - Fourth convention of the Aikokusha. 114 delegates said to represent 87,000 members in 22 prefectures attend. The society's name is changed to the League for the Establishment of a National Assembly (Kokkai kisei dōmei 国会期成同盟).

April 17 - Representatives of the League for the Establishment of a National Assembly, Kataoka Kenkichi and Kōno Hironaka (河野広中), present a petition to the government for the creation of a national assembly but gets rejected.

July - Inoue Kowashi (井上毅) drafts a paper regarding the constitution of Japan (Kenpō Chukōryō no Gi 憲法中綱領議) and Iwakura Tomomi submits a recommendation to the emperor (Kenpō Daikōryō 憲法大綱領) based on Inoue’s paper. Among others, the recommendation states that the constitution should be an imperial constitution under the Prussian model. Many of the points in the recommendation are later integrated into the Meiji Constitution.

November 10 - Second convention of the League for the Establishment of a National Assembly. It calls for people to compile their own version of a constitution draft by the following year.

December 15 - Formation of the Liberal Party (Jiyūtō自由党) by Ueki Emori, Kōno Hironaka and others.

December 27 - Submission of the final draft constitution (Nihonkoku Kokken An 日本国国憲按) by Ōki Takatō (大木喬任), who succeeded Arisugawa as head of the Senate. It is submitted to the emperor but rejected as Iwakura Tomomi and Ito Hirobumi being unsupportive of the content of the draft.

March - Councilor Ōkuma Shigenobu (大隈重信) submits a memorandum to the government arguing for the adoption of the English-style parliamentary system in Japan as a form of constitutional government. He also proposes that a first national assembly should be held in 1883.

August 28 - Ueki Emori of Risshisha writes a draft of constitution (Tōyō Dinihonkoku Kokken An 東洋大日本国国憲按), known to be the most democratic and progressive draft at the time, acknowledging the right to resistance and the right to revolution.

October 12 - The Imperial Rescript calls for the creation of a national assembly by 1890 (Kokkai Kaisetsu no Chokuyu 国会開設の勅諭). The Political Change of 1882 (Meiji jūyo-nen no Seihen 明治十四年の政変): Ōkuma Shigenobu and his supporters are forcibly purged from office. The Meiji government is now fully controlled by the ex-samurais from Satsuma and Chōshū (長州). With the purge of Ōkuma, the government shifts its support more to the Prussian-style than the British-style parliamentary democracy.

March 14 - Senate councilor Itō Hhirobumi (伊藤博文), by order of the emperor, leads an overseas mission to observe and study various constitutional systems first-hand.

April 16 - Ōkuma Shigenobu, with a support of Ono Azusa, Inukai Tsuyoshi (犬養毅), Maejima Hisoka (前島密), Ozaki Yukio (尾崎行雄) and others, forms a political party, the Constitutional Reform Party (Rikken kaisin tō 立憲改進党). The party calls for a British-style constitutional monarchy within the framework of a parliamentary democracy.

August 3 - The Itō Hirobumi Mission returns to Japan.

November - Itō Hirobumi establishes the Office for the Study of the Constitution (Kenpō Torishirabe Kyoku 憲法取調局).

March 17 - Establishment of the Bureau for the Study of Administrative Reforms (制度取調局 Seido Torishirabe Kyoku). It absorbs the Office for the Study of the Constitution, established the previous year. Itō Hirobumi becomes the first director.

December 22 - Formal establishment of the cabinet system (Naikaku Seido 内閣制度). Itō Hirobumi is appointed the first Prime Minister of Japan.

October 24 - Receiving the official announcement to create a national assembly by 1890, Hoshi Tōru (星亨) and others call for civil movement to unite in order to counter the government and to promote active party politics led by citizens. (Daidō Danketsu Undō 大同団結運動)

May 23 - Inoue Kowashi writes, with the help of Karl Friedrich Hermann Roesler and Albert Mosse, the legal advisors of the government, an official draft of the constitution (Nihon Teikoku Kenpō Sōan 日本帝国憲法草案).

June 1 - Itō Hirobumi, Itō Miyoji (伊東巳代治), Kaneko Kentarō (金子堅太郎) and others get together at the private villa of Itō Hirobumi in Natsushima, Kanagawa. Having Inue Kowashi’s draft as a starting point, they further discuss to come up with the final draft constitution (Natsushima Sōan夏島草案).

April 28 - Receiving the finalization of the official draft constitution (Dai Nihon Teikoku Kenpō Jōsha Sangatsu An 大日本帝国憲法浄写三月案), the Privy Council (Sūmitsu-in 枢密院) is established by an imperial ordinance. The Establishment of the highest advisory body to the emperor is aimed to deliberate on the draft constitution and is headed by Itō Hirobumi.

January 31 - The Privy Council finishes its deliberation on the draft constitution.

February 11 - Constitution promulgated by the Meiji emperor (Dai Nihon Teikoku Kenpō 大日本帝国憲法).