emperorism

Noun

emperorism (uncountable)

1. The form of government in Japan prior to WWII, with the emperor as head of state.
   • He called for a restoration ( chūkǒ ) of the true principles ( seiron ) of emperorism and of the bakufu, and reminded the Japanese that it had been long - standing practice of the shogunate to protect the correct theory of imperial authority.1970, H. D. Harootunian, Toward Restoration
   • The other portion was emperorism ( tennoism ), an imperial ideology which held up the emperor as the ultimate source of morality and political legitimacy.1990, Cheryl Marie Allam, The Path to Surrender, page 32
2. Extreme Japanese nationalism before and during WWII, especially support for the policies of the emperor.
   • It is difficult to argue with much contained in these analyses of the pathology of Japanese emperorism. Certainly emperorism was the value system that provided the foundations of Japanese aggression and bureaucratic fascism.1978, British Association for Japanese Studies, Proceedings of the British Association for Japanese Studies, volumes 3-4, University of Sheffield, Centre of Japanese Studies., →LCCN, →OCLC, page 124
   • He was a known supporter of "emperorism," a term used to describe those who espoused others to give up their life for the emperor and to the oppressive military regime.1994, Kiyoshi Ōsawa, Marivi Nañagas, Go South, Japanese, page 104
3. A belief in or support for the absolute authority of an emperor or similar supreme ruler.
   • The charge that Keppler made most often in his anti-third-term campaign was that of “emperorism,” a fear many Americans shared.1988, Richard Samuel West, Satire on Stone: The Political Cartoons of Joseph Keppler, page 68
   • Anyone who tells you the Chinese government is Marxist is living inside an ideological slogan. It is Chinese emperorism masked by a Marxian moment of social responsibility.1993, Peace Magazine - Volume 9, page 25
4. Synonym of authoritarianism.
   • Wilson and many Americans with him have undergone an ugly development from an honest democratic republicanism to a bedizened emperorism.1917, Current History - Volume 6, Part 2, page 142
   • We begin to feel like we are again free from the 'emperorism' of a radical element.1922, United Mine Workers Journal - Volume 33, page 15

   Synonyms:

   authoritarianism