Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/656

616 —The grades of rank among the Imperial Princes, Imperial Princesses, and Princes and Princesses, shall be abolished. The family rank of Imperial Princes and all usages conflicting with the present law shall be abolished.

—The property, annual expenses, and all other rules concerning members of the Imperial Family shall be specially determined.

—When in the future it shall become necesarry either to amend or make additions to the present law, the matter shall be decided by the Emperor, with the advice of the Imperial Family Council and with that of the Privy Council.

 

—The Empire of Japan shall be reigned over and governed by a line of Emperors unbroken for ages eternal.

—The Imperial Throne shall be succeeded to by Imperial male descendants, according to the provisions of the Imperial House Law.

—The Emperor is sacred and inviolable.

—The Emperor is the head of the empire, combining in himself the rights of sovereignty, and exercises them according to the provisions of the present Constitution.

—The Emperor exercises the legislative power with the consent of the Imperial Diet.

—The Emperor gives sanction to laws, and orders them to be promulgated and executed.

—The Emperor convokes the Imperial Diet, opens, closes, and prorogues it, and dissolves the House of Representatives.

—The Emperor, in consequence of an urgent necessity to maintain public safety or to avert public calamities, issues, when the Imperial Diet is not sitting, Imperial ordinances in the place of law.

Such Imperial ordinances are to be laid before the Imperial Diet at its next session, and when the Diet does not approve the said ordinances, the Government shall declare them to be invalid for the future.

—The Emperor issues or causes to be issued the ordinances necessary for the carrying out of the laws, or for the maintenance of the public peace and order, and for the promo-