emperorism

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noun

The form of government in Japan prior to WWII, with the emperor as head of state.

Scrabble 16

Meanings

nounemperorism (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe form of government in Japan prior to WWII, with the emperor as head of state.

    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 more examples

    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

    His solution was an educational design based not on Shintoism or Confucianism per se but rather on an eclectic notion of Kōdō—his Emperorism incorporated a mix of Shinto, Confucian, and Western thought.

    1997 July 1, Motoyama Yukihiko, edited by J.S.A. Elisonas and Richard Rubinger, Proliferating Talent: Essays on Politics, Thought, and Education in the Meiji Era, University of Hawaii Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 103
  2. uncountableExtreme Japanese nationalism before and during WWII, especially support for the policies of the emperor.

    Each death in his name fortified the spiritual and psychological appeal of emperorism, ethnocentrism, aggression, and nationalism.

    1997, Joshua Safier, Yasukuni Shrine and the Constraints on the Discourses of Nationalism in Twentieth Century Japan, page 33
    2 more examples

    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. uncountableA belief in or support for the absolute authority of an emperor or similar supreme ruler.

    Why, the Roman Empire lost its republic, and embraced emperorism from just such a scenario.

    2016, Rick Pietlicki, Blow the Trumpet in Zion
    4 more examples

    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

    He is a jet-setting fuhrer whose advocacy of emperorism in far-flung lands continues to evoke the images of ethnic conquest, of Storm Troopers trampling on the lesser race.

    1995, Daily Report: Near East & South Asia, page 62

    So the religion which these Roman despots committed so many crimes to establish should not be called Christianity, but “Romanism” or “Emperorism,” in other words “Popery”; for the head of the Roman State aimed to be not only Emperor but also Pop Universal as soon as the Irish Pope, whose seat was at Tara, could be dethroned.

    2018, Conor MacDari, Irish Wisdom Preserved in Bible and Pyramids
  4. uncountableSynonym of authoritarianism.

    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
    2 more examples

    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

    Emperorism asserts that knowledge comes from top down and making decisions based on rank and power.

    2020, Doug Rosenberg, Barry Boehm, Matt Stephens, Parallel Agile – faster delivery, fewer defects, lower cost, page 187

    Synonyms: authoritarianism

Synonyms & antonyms

nounSynonym of authoritarianism.

Origin

  1. Japanese天皇制“emperor system”
  2. Englishemperorism

From emperor + -ism, possibly a calque of Japanese 天皇制 (tennō-sei, “emperor system”) or 天皇主義 (tennō shugi, “emperor doctrine”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

emperorism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/emperorism

MLA

“emperorism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/emperorism. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “emperorism,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/emperorism.

Source: emperorism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.