The political incentives to establish a bicameral legislature structure was at first to convince Western countries that Japan was in line with them, and to alleviate the domestic pressures of emerging people’s rights movement. The national identity may be a concern later, the Meiji government was in its haste to demonstrate something—its ambition and ability to transform Japan into a modern state follow the path of Western powers.
The westernization process includes the change in architectural styles, which seemed to be more visually sensible than gradual changes in culture, customs, and ideologies. Jonathan M. Reynolds asserted that Meiji leaders “not to deny their Japanese cultural identity, but rather asserts that identity needed to be firmly rooted in modernity.” But to what extent should Japanese culture modernize, there was no exact answer. Indeed, the architecture style change was a microcosm of Japan’s exploration of modernization. The designs for Diet building, from pure westernized design to an equal mixture of Japanese and western style, to an increasing emphasis on Japanese style while whittling down the western style, finally arrive at a version embraced the contemporary modernism that stressed the technological advancement and the “purity” of construction materials. The decoration inside the Diet Building is still a mixture of Japanese and Western Architectural styles. The central hall has a western structure but painted Japanese four seasons, the Emporer's room used chandelier but also decorated with Japanese paintings.
It was interesting to see how the roles of western designers change in the process when Japan attempted to identify itself in a western dominated world. The western designers were hired to introduce western elements to design, but some of them, either faced the opposition of Japanese designers or enchanted by the traditional Japanese aesthetics, pursued to create a dream-like “orientalist fantasy.” They no longer be active as Japanese architects started to “take over” the control of designing the Diet building. Although they didn’t address the Japanese V.S. western styles dispute directly, their nationality, to a certain extent, relieve the stress of public opinions. From my perspective, the cultural confidence has enhanced as the national identity gradually formed and clarified. From the beginning the pro-western powers were in dominance, the priority was to look more “western” and to quickly get rid of the traditional images of Japan. This radical approach reflects Japan lacked confidence in its own culture, and by the end of the project, Japan was more comfortable with building a vague neoclassical building and proud of its Japanese style decoration. To some extent, Japan no longer needed to use a western style of architecture to prove it is modernized, contrarily, it accepted a balance between western and traditional cultures, and found its own way to demonstrate its national identity.
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