The House of Peers was the upper house of the Imperial Diet as mandated under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan. In 1869, under the new Meiji government, a Japanese peerage was created by an Imperial decree merging the former Court nobility and former feudal lords into a single new aristocratic class called the kazoku. A second imperial ordinance in 1884 grouped the kazoku into five ranks equivalent to the European prince, marquis, count, viscount, and baron. Although this grouping idea was taken from the European peerage, the Japanese titles were taken from Chinese and based on the ancient feudal system in China. Ito Hirobumi and the other Meiji leaders deliberately modeled the chamber on the British House of Lords, as a counterweight to the popularly elected House of Representatives. The House of Peers originally comprised: ⁕the Crown Prince from age of 18 ⁕all imperial princes and lesser princes of the imperial blood over the age of twenty ⁕all princes and marquis over the age of 25 ⁕150 representatives elected from the ranks of counts, viscounts, and barons over the age of 25, for seven-year terms Wikipedia [ - ]

The House of Peers was the upper house of the Imperial Diet as mandated under the Constitution... [ + ]