Why did the Meiji Constitution give the emperor control of the army and navy?

The Meiji Constitution, largely the work of Itō Hirobumi, granted the emperor supreme control of the army and navy as part of a broader effort to define Japan as a modern, capable nation while preserving the power of its leaders.1

Following the Meiji Restoration, which ended nearly seven centuries of military rule under the shoguns, Japan’s leaders sought to reestablish the formal ruling authority of the emperor. By vesting military command in the emperor, the constitution aimed to create a centralized state where loyalty to the monarch was a sacred duty and a patriotic obligation.2345

While the emperor was the formal head of state, the actual power was often wielded by the genro (elder statesmen) and the privy council, who advised him. This constitutional structure was intended to balance the creation of a modern parliamentary system with the preservation of imperial authority, though it ultimately allowed the military to exert significant influence, particularly in the 1930s.16